New Zealand win toss, opt to bat first against India in 2nd T20I

LUCKNOW: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the second T20I of the three-match series at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

New Zealand leads the three-match T20I series 1-0. They had defeated Men in Blue in the first match by 21 runs, which saw a fighting half-century from all-rounder Washington Sundar go in vain. They will be looking forward to downing Men in Blue in their own territory and win the series.

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said at the toss, "We are gonna have a bat. The stats say that it is challenging to chase here. We will try to get some runs on the board and see what it does. We had a tough one-day series, it was nice to bounce back with a win. Different guys stepping up at different times is always nice.

It's never easy to beat India at home. That partnership between Surya and Hardik put them right back in the game. The key is to take wickets through the middle, that's the best way to slow them down. You got to take that (bigger ground dimensions) into account. Same team."

Indian skipper Hardik Pandya said at the toss, "We were also thinking to bat first but bowling is also fine. It cannot difficult than this in a bilateral series, looking forward to this game. We are going to make mistakes and we will learn from them. It might turn. Umran misses out, Yuzi comes in."

India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh

New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner.