India vs New Zealand 2nd T20: India look to bounce back after hiding in Wellington

February 8, 2019

After India got thrashed in the opening T20I, the visitors will be looking to bounce back in the second match and level the three-match series at Eden Park in Auckland today.
Rohit Sharma’s side went down in the first T20I in Wellington by 80 runs to register their biggest T20I loss in terms of runs. India have a day to recover – physically and mentally – for the second T20I, with just a day separating the two games.
India failed to make a difference in all the three departments on Wednesday. Tim Seifert gave a tough time to the India bowlers with his 43-ball 84 as the hosts posted 219. Spinners Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner too were on top of the Indian batsmen, sharing two wickets apiece.
Indian team management might bring in some changes to address their first match bowling woes by replacing Khaleel Ahmed with either Siddharth Kaul or Mohammad Siraj, with chinaman Kuldeep Yadav also hoping to get a chance.
Despite featuring eight batsmen, India made a disappointing show of their run chase with captain Rohit Sharma being dismissed for just a run. He said after the match, “As a team, we have been good at chasing down targets which is why we play with eight batsmen. We believe that whatever the target is in front of us we can chase it down, but we just couldn’t do it tonight.”
While Kane Williamson’s side will be happy with the result after a 4-1 dribbling in the ODI series, this is a must win game for India if they do not want to end the T20I series on the losing end.
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Siraj.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson(c), Doug Bracewell, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Scott Kuggeleijn, Colin Munro, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner, James Neesham.