New Delhi: Team India won the toss and opted to bat first against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on October 17. The opening day of the match was washed out due to the rain.
The persistent rain at the stadium prevented even the toss from taking place, with the pitch remaining undercover for the entire day. After the tea, the match officials called off the play on Day 2 around 2:30 PM IST as the heavy rain continued to fall. After beating Bangladesh by 2-0, Rohit and Co. will look to win the opening Test match against the Blackcaps in the remaining four days.
Why Shubman Gill is not playing?
The Men in Blue made two changes from the last Test against Bangladesh, Sarfaraz Khan replaced Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav replaced Akash Deep. The Indian captain Rohit Sharma at the toss said that Shubman Gill missed out because he was not 100% fit to play. He also said that a lot can happen over four days and the team played well in last few matches.
“A lot can happen over the four days as well and you want to get the result as much as possible. The last few Tests we played, we played well and we can get confidence from that and the table looks brilliant. From the last Test two changes: Gill misses out, not 100%, so Sarfaraz comes in and Kuldeep in for Akash Deep” Rohit Sharma said at the toss. The BCCI later posted a tweet on X and wrote that Shubman was unavailable for the selection due to neck stiffness.
Update: Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness.
Match Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8qhNBrs1td#TeamIndia | #INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2024
Gill was in sensational form during the two-match Test series against Bangladesh and scored 164 runs at an average of 54.67, including one century. Gill was in sensational form during the two-match Test series against Bangladesh and scored 164 runs at an average of 54.67, including one century. Sarfaraz made his Test debut for India during the five-match home Test series against England but didn’t got chance to feature in playing XI during Bangladesh Test series. He returns to international cricket after scoring a double century for Mumbai in domestic cricket.
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