India to bat against New Zealand in first Test; Sarfaraz replaces Gill

Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness, says the Indian team management after the toss

Bengaluru: India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in the rain-truncated opening Test here on Thursday.

India made two changes with Sarfaraz Khan replacing an injured Shubman Gill, who was not “100 per cent” according to the skipper, and Kuldeep Yadav replacing seamer Akash Deep as a third spinner.

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“Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness,” the Indian team management informed after the toss.

The first day’s play was washed out due to persistent rain. India and New Zealand will play two more Tests, at Pune from October 24-28 and at Mumbai from November 1-5.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, William O’Rourke.