India vs New Zealand: Rohit Elects to Field First; Debut for Venkatesh Iyer

India begin their new era with coach Rahul Dravid in Jaipur against New Zealand with T20 cricket,

Venkatesh Iyer made his T20I debut against New Zealand.

Image: BCCI

Rohit Sharma, India's new T20 captain, won the toss and opted to field first against New Zealand. Rohit said the team has one eye on the 2022 World Cup and that they will try out a few new things in the build up.

Both sides have made plenty of changes after the 2021 T20 World Cup and there are five on each side.

India have handed Venkatesh Iyer a debut with head coach Rahul Dravid presenting him with his cap.

“Everyone who plays cricket aspires to play for the country, so I feel good that I've been presented with this opportunity. Feels good to play under Rahul (Dravid) sir, I'm really excited and looking forward to it. As a cricketer you got to be flexible, and I'll look to capitalise on the role I've been given. I'm ready to bat at any position, or bowl whenever I've been asked to. It's wonderful to play in front of the (Indian) crowd, it's great to have them back,” debutant Venkatesh Iyer said.

“We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, thought behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practicing from a couple of days. It's been good, has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days and back here. But it'll be good for the team. We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj and Chahar are back. We're playing three spinners and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it's a lot of time ahead, we'll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial,” Rohit said at the toss.

New Zealand are without Devon Conway and Kane Williamson and are being led by Tim Southee.

This is the first time Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Stadium is hosting an international T20 game.

“We'd have bowled as well, keeping dew factor in mind. Pretty disappointed at not winning the World Cup, but this is a great place to play crikcklet and the team is looking forward to it. Another chance to give chances - 4 changes for us - Neesham, KW, Sodhi and Milne miss out; Mark Chapman, Todd Astle and Lockie Feruson are in,” Tim Southee said.

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand Playing XI: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee(c), Todd Astle, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult