New Zealand vs India, 2nd T20I: Preview, Dream11 and stats
The Indian cricket team is all set to face New Zealand in the second T20I of the five-match series on Sunday. Virat Kohli-led India beat the Kiwis by six wickets in the first encounter at the Eden Park in Auckland. India will be eyeing a similar show against the hosts and take a 2-0 lead. Here's the match preview.
The match will be held at Eden Park in Auckland. The second T20I is scheduled to start at 12:20 PM IST. The pitch will assist batsmen at large. We saw both teams scoring 200-plus runs in the first match. One can watch the match live on the Star Sports Network. The conditions is set to be clear and we could see another batting show.
Wicket-keeper batsman KL Rahul (captain) opens the batting alongside Colin Munro in this Dream11 side. Indian skipper Virat Kohli comes in next and is followed by Kane Williamson (vice-captain). Shreyas Iyer adds depth in the middle order. Ravindra Jadeja and Colin de Grandhomme are the two all-rounders. The bowling unit sees the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ish Sodhi and Scott Kuggeleijn.
Martin Guptill needs 34 more to register 2,500 runs in T20Is (2,466). He could become only the third batsman to do so. Munro (102) needs four sixes to get past the legendary Chris Gayle (105). KL Rahul (1,293) needs seven more to register the 1,300-run mark. He needs 17 runs to surpass David Miller (1,309). Ish Sodhi (49) is one short of 50 wickets.
Team India dominated the scenes on Friday and will want to continue in the same fashion. With Rahul as the keeper, India get the luxury of playing an experienced player like Manish Pandey. Shivam Dube was impressive in the opener and the all-rounder will aim for a similar show. Shardul Thakur was the weak link. He was costly and Navdeep Saini might replace him.
New Zealand batted well and that was a plus point for the side. The openers looked strong and set the base. With the conditions set to be similar, Kiwis will be eyeing another positive outing with the bat. However, it is the bowling that let them down. New Zealand will need to take a call on Tim Southee and Blair Tickner.
