Daijiworld Media Network - Hagley Oval

Hagley Oval, Oct 22: India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl against New Zealand in the first T20 International at Hagley Oval on Thursday.

India arrived in New Zealand only two days before the opening match and had limited time to acclimatise ahead of a lengthy tour featuring five T20 Internationals, five One-Day Internationals and two Test matches.

“We have no complaints,” Iyer said. “We're a band of professionals and everyone knows that in the dressing room.”

India made two changes to the team that faced the West Indies in the final match of their five-game T20I series a week ago. Mayank Yadav replaced Prince Yadav, while Nitish Kumar Reddy came in for Shivam Dube.

India won the first and third matches of that series by eight wickets and 14 runs, respectively, but the West Indies bounced back on both occasions.

New Zealand opted for a pace-heavy attack, selecting four seamers — Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson — alongside three spin options in Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh are expected to share the new ball for India.

The two teams last met in the T20 World Cup final in India, where India registered a 96-run victory over New Zealand.

Teams:

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (captain), Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson.

India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.