Overview:
The Men in Blue have added Nitish Kumar Reddy to the Playing XI after Washington Sundar was ruled out of the remainder of the series.
The average score at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot, is 322, and the second ODI between India and New Zealand is likely to be a high-scoring affair. Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan opined on the pitch of the contest, calling it a graveyard for the bowlers.
“It is the graveyard for the bowlers. Let’s see how many runs would be scored in today’s match. Don’t go by the cracks on the pitch, as it has nothing for the bowlers, and the batters will enjoy batting over here,” Irfan Pathan said.
Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Michael Bracewell has won the toss and invited India to bat first in the second game in Gujarat. The Men in Blue have added Nitish Kumar Reddy to the Playing XI after Washington Sundar was ruled out of the remainder of the series. Although Ayush Badoni was selected as an injury replacement, the team management preferred Nitish over him.
The host nation won the previous match by 4 wickets to take a 1-0 lead. Virat Kohli was named the Player of the Match for scoring 93 runs and playing a key role in the success of the team. He completed 28,000 runs and also became the second-highest run-getter in international cricket.
Playing XIs
New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Henry Nicholls, 3 Will Young, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mitchell Hay (wk), 7 Michael Bracewell (capt.), 8 Zak Foulks, 9 Kristian Clarke, 10 Kyle Jamieson,11 Jayden Lennox
India: 1 Shubman Gill (capt.), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Prasidh Krishna