A message above the sightscreen of the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi reads “Farewell Ashish Nehra”. The first of the 3-match T20I series against New Zealand on Wednesday (November 1) will be Nehra’s last international appearance that too on his home ground, which advances more context to the already competitive tour.
Nehra had requested to reserve a complete box for his friends and family at the venue for his last game for India. Despite all this, his position in the playing XI is still unsure as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are doing a phenomenal job.
New Zealand, the No. 1 ranked T20I side in the world, need to win this series in order to maintain their numero uno position. While, India, who is ranked fifth, require to whitewash the visitors to move up to second. However, the task doesn’t seem to be easy as they are yet to beat the Kiwis in T20Is.
On the eve of the match, the visitors had a three-hour full-fledged training session. On the other hand, the hosts had an optional training session, with the stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, etc. opting to rest it out. The likes of Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya and Shreyas Iyer sweated it out at the ground while coach Ravi Shasrti oversaw the session.
New Zealand have played a T20I at the Kotla before, in the World T20 semi-final against England, but India haven’t. Meanwhile, with the one-day series lost in a close encounter, New Zealand will fancy their chances of walking away with at least a series win in the format that they’re the best in the world.
With India’s T20I side being very identical to their ODI one, they might make some changes as Kedar Jadhav is dropped from the T20I squad and if they decide to give Nehra his farewell. They might also hand Shreyas Iyer his maiden international cap or will continue with KL Rahul in the middle-order.
Colin de Grandhomme seemed to have been a bit under the weather, throwing up at the end of a long training session. Glenn Phillips might play his second T20I given the time he spent in the nets.
Pitch and Weather conditions
A warm day in the capital with temperatures rising up to 32 in the day, but cooling off drastically in the evening. Dew factor will come into play. The outfield is always fast. Even if slow, the pitch will be a good one for batting.
Some interesting facts:
- India have never defeated New Zealand in a T20I in five attempts. New Zealand have won five of their six T20Is in India, with their only loss coming in Delhi.
- Virat Kohli averages 83.75 from seven innings at Kotla. He has scored 335 runs, scoring fifties in four out of the seven innings here.
- Michell Santner and Ish Sodhi both took ten wickets each in the World T20 in India last year. Santner’s ten came at 11.40 apiece and an economy of 6.28 while Sodhi’s came at 12.00 per wicket, at 6.10 per over.
Probable Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee.
