Auckland: India captain Shreyas Iyer’s luck with the toss continued as he won it again in the fourth T20I against New Zealand at Eden Park and chose to bowl first.
India made two changes to their playing XI from the third match, bringing back the now-recovered Ishan Kishan and Mayank Yadav, while benching Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the fourth clash.
Speaking at the toss, Shreyas confirmed his decision to bowl first and also the changes to the team. “We’re going to bowl. Just following the same pattern. The intent, the positivity was there from ball one. The execution was phenomenal. The wind is following us everywhere; it’s getting chillier.
“It’s important to be ruthless. The boys have been given the same message. Everyone is in high spirits. Expecting bounce and seam movement. Ishan Kishan comes in for Vaibhav and Mayank comes in for Bhuvi,” Shreyas said at the toss.
Meanwhile, New Zealand have also made a change to their Playing XI as they look to register their first win of the series at home. Nathan Smith returns for Kyle Jamieson, who will be missing the rest of the series due to his workload management.
For India, Ishan’s return gives them a boost as the wicketkeeper batter had missed the last two T20Is due to his low-grade right adductor (groin) strain. Sooryavanshi, who made 45 in the previous match, misses out, and so does Bhuvneshwar, who hasn’t set the stage on fire on his India comeback yet, as Mayank returned.
India have already taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series and are now looking to sweep the hosts.
India T20I vice-captain Tilak Varma, while speaking to the media on the eve of the fourth match, had opened up on the desire to whitewash New Zealand. “We are thinking this is a great opportunity to achieve a clean sweep. The next goal is to win the upcoming match and give the Indian crowd a great chance to witness a 5-0 series win,” Tilak told reporters on the eve of the match.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (w), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Jacob Duffy, Matthew Fisher
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (w), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav
(IANS)
