Shubman Gill returned to India‘s playing XI after New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat in the second Test in Pune on Thursday. The hosts made three significant changes following an eight-wicket loss in the series opener in Bengaluru last week. Gill, who missed the first Test due to a stiff neck, was confirmed by head coach Gautam Gambhir to be fully recovered.
Gill replaced out-of-form KL Rahul, while India also dropped Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav. Akash Deep and Washington Sundar took their places in the lineup. On the other hand, New Zealand made one change, bringing in left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner to replace injured pacer Matt Henry.
India captain Rohit Sharma noted that he would have preferred to bat first in Pune. He commented:
“I would have batted as well . Whatever the pitch is we have to play good cricket. Lot of positives. No matter what the situation of the game is, you always try and come back into the game.”
”That is what we did. At the end, not a lot of runs on the board. A little drier [the pitch]. We do understand how important the first 10-15 overs. We have made three changes,” Rohit said at the toss.
“It [the pitch] might produce a bit of spin as we expect from his part of the town. It was a really proud moment [the win]. We celebrated that but our focus has turned to Pune. It is just adapting to the surface and adapt as soon as possible. We have a good opportunity with the bat. One change,” the opposition skipper added.
Playing XI
India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand XI: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, William O’Rourke
Get the latest cricket news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.