India target maiden T20 series win in New Zealand with victory in third match

India will look to carry on the winning momentum in the third match against Kiwis to seal the first T20 series on the New Zealand soil.

India have already won both the matches and are 2-0 up in the series. The visitors have dominated New Zealand in all the departments in the two games played so far.

In the first match, india made light work of a huge target of 204 to show their depth in the batting line-up where as in the second T20, bowlers restricted New Zealand to a paltry total and visitors once against went over the line with ease.

KL Rahul and Shreyar Iyer have been India’s linchpin when it comes to batting. Rahul, in particular, has impressed everyone and seems to enjoy the dual role of opening the innings as well as keeping wickets.

Iyer, on the other hand, has showed tremendous maturity and application and has made sure he owns the much-debated no. 4 spot.

Meanwhile, Kane Williamson will hope they come out with an improved performance in all the three departments and keep the series alive. New Zealand have been hampered with injuries to multiple regular players compiled with their poor run in the recent times.

While pacers Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson are unavailable for the series due to injuries, usually dependable all-rounders Colin de Grandhomme and Mitchell Santner have been out of form and have not been able to trouble the Indian batters even slightly.

Williamson might be tempted to bring in Daryl Mitchell or Scott Kuggeleijn in place of Blair Tickner, who has picked up just one wicket in the series so far, conceding 68 runs in six overs.

Virat Kohli may prefer not to tinker with the winning combination and field the same XI in Hamilton, making sure they continue with their winning streak and seal the series.

For most of this time, Hardik Pandya has been out of the side, undergoing and then recovering from back surgery, leaving India to force-fit other allrounders into his No. 7 role, in both ODIs and T20Is.

Jadeja has usually been that man. Out of nowhere, he’s become one of India’s most important white-ball cricketers.

The boundaries at Seddon Park are bigger in comparison to the Eden Park and thus one may not be able to see as many sixes as were hit in the previous two matches in Auckland, especially the first one where bowlers from both the sides were taken to cleaners.

Agencies


Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Kuggeleijn, Colin Munro, Colin de Grandhomme, Tom Bruce, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Hamish Bennett, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner