Jaipur: India on Wednesday won the toss and opted to bowl against New Zealand here at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in the first T20 International match of the series.
India have handed debut match to Venkatesh Iyer while Shreyas Iyer is back after missing the recent T20 World Cup.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Siraj also made it to the playing XI.
For New Zealand, Mark Chapman, Todd Astle, Rachin Ravindra and Lockie Feruson are in for rested James Neesham, Kane Williamson, Ish Sodhi and Adam Milne.
At the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma said, "We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, thought behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practicing from a couple of days. It's been good, has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days at home and back here. But it'll be good for the team. We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj and Chahar are back. We're playing three seamers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it's a lot of time ahead, we'll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial."
On the other hand, New Zealand skipper Tim Southee said, "We'd have bowled as well, keeping dew factor in mind. Pretty disappointed at not winning the World Cup, but this is a great place to play cricket and the team is looking forward to it. Another chance for the men on the fringes - 4 changes for us - Neesham, KW, Sodhi and Milne miss out; Mark Chapman, Todd Astle, Rachin Ravindra and Lockie Ferguson are in"
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee(c), Todd Astle, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj
