India captain Shreyas Iyer had already confirmed the decision to leave Vaibhav Sooryavanshi on the bench, but two changes were made to the playing XI for the first T20I against New Zealand in Christchurch. It was Shreyas who won the toss and elected to field against New Zealand in the first match of their five-T20I series on Thursday. Among the changes India made, the Gautam Gambhir -led team management decided to bring in all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and Mayank Yadav in place of Shivam Dube and Prince Yadav.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was left on the bench again as Team India made 2 changes for the first T20I against New Zealand.
When asked about the travel, he added: “I think pretty well. A lot of them took a while to get accustomed to the conditions and also the weather, the time difference especially. But no complaints. We are a bunch of professionals, and everybody knows that in the dressing room. And also bowling-wise, it wasn’t easy to bowl on smaller grounds and flat wickets, but the boys showed a lot of character, and that is the same attitude and approach we want to come here with. Confirming the changes in the team, Shreyas added: “We’ve got two changes. So Reddy comes in for Dube and Mayank comes in for Prince.”
India drew 2-2 against West Indies in the 5-match series before the final T20I was washed out. I think scoring 230, 250 in almost every alternate game was a plus for us.
“Obviously a quick turnaround, want to have a fair idea about how the wicket will play, how much bounce it’s going to offer, and based on that we took this decision,” Shreyas said after winning the toss. On the last assignment, he said: “Well, a lot of positives, honestly, especially in our batting.
