Although the series between New Zealand and India was expected to be a nail-biting one, the visitors have already taken a 2-0 lead heading with the Kiwis looking clueless in Auckland. They will hope for a change in fortunes with the action shifting to the Seddon Park in Hamilton for the third T20I of the five-match series on Wednesday.
While the hosts eyeing for some changes in their squad to keep the series alive, the Indians, however, showed no signs of jet lag with two stunning performances. With KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer firing going all guns blazing, the much-fancied men in blue will look to wrap the series with another good performance although New Zealand will have other ideas. Nevertheless, another cracking game is definitely on the cards at the Seddon Park with the series on the line for the home side.
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The last time India and New Zealand played each other in a T20I here was in early 2019 with over 400 runs being scored. A similar batting surface can be expected this time as well on Wednesday. With a few clouds expected to make an appearance, the pacers should get some extra help early on. Chasing would be the ideal option upon winning the toss for both the teams. Here are some of the predictions for the game:
New Zealand:
The home team will look to get in Daryl Mitchell and Scott Kuggleijn to the playing XI in order to replace the under-firing Colin de Grandhomme and Blair Tickner who haven’t done much of note in this series. Although their batting department has a lot of experience and firepower, they need to make some crucial partnerships in order to win the match.
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The onus will be upon the skipper, Kane Williamson to play the anchor role and let teh middle-order batsmen go bonkers with the likes of Colin Munro and Ross Taylor play their natural game around him. Their bowlers have also found it tough against the Indians and will have to come up with an adequate response with the ball if they were to get a positive result from this game.
Predicted XI: Colin Munro, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson (C), Tim Seifert(WK), Ross Taylor, Daryl Mitchell/Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Scott Kuggleijn, Ish Sodhi, and Hamish Bennett.
India:
While there isn’t any reason to change personnel for the Indians, they could try a bring in a player or two for this game. The batting unit looks more or less settled with Rahul and Iyer doing shouldering the weight if winning the matches. They could try Rishabh Pant for Manish Pandey although it looks highly unlikely.
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However, Thakur’s expensive outing in the second T20 could see Washington Sundar or Navdeep Saini come into the side with Yuzvendra Chahal expected to get the nod over Kuldeep Yadav yet again. With Jasprit Bumrah being too hot to handle for the Kiwis, India will enter this game as the clear favorites against New Zealand.
Predicted XI: KL Rahul(WK), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Navdeep Saini/ Washington Sundar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Fantasy XI Prediction
Lokesh Rahul, Ross Taylor, Colin Munro (vc), Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shivam Dube, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Scott Kuggleijn.
