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India won the toss and elected to bat first in the fifth T20I against New Zealand at the Greenfield stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on January 31. Despite all the hullabaloo around Sanju Samson after his lean patch, he has managed to retain his spot in India's playing XI. India made big changes in the playing XI, and brought in Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan and Varun Chakravarthy. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav and Harshit Rana sat out of the final T20I.
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What did the captains say after the toss?
India captain Suryakumar Yadav, after winning the toss, said:
"We are going to bat first. We were here last night. There were a lot of dew. So we want to test our bowlers if we're good defending the total. It's a good wicket. We had a good session last night and the curator said it's going to play true for the next 40 overs. Axar comes back, Ishan comes back and one more. Don't worry Thiruvananthapuram, Sanju Samson is playing tonight. He's (Tilak) just taking his time to play a few practice games. He's been a good player for us. When he comes back, it's going to be a solid side. But yeah, we're really, really waiting for itWe are waiting for him. We've almost covered all the departments, batting, bowling and fielding. But yeah, every time you do something, you try and learn something out of it and then take it to the next game."
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Meanwhile, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner, after losing the toss, said:
" A little more windy, it might not be as dewy as the other night, but it's another opportunity for us to, I guess, bowl first. We've batted a few times this series, so, yeah, something different, I guess. We have got four changes - Allen in for Conway, Bevon Jacobs is in for Chapman, Kyle Jamieson for Foulkes and Lockie in place of Henry. (why is Henry not playing?) Yeah, it's just all precautionary stuff. I guess we're rotating around the bowlers a bit. For us, it's another opportunity tonight to put on a good performance, same with India, that next week's where it's crunch time for us. It's nice to always have Finn back in. And Lockie, we know how good he is as well. So, good opportunity tonight to see what these Indian pitches look like for Finn. Probably a little different from Perth where he's been. But, yeah, it's another good opportunity for us to see what he can do."
India's Playing XI:
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand's Playing XI:
Tim Seifert(w), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Bevon Jacobs, Mitchell Santner(c), Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy
Pitch Report
"We are in beautiful Thiruvananthapuram for the final and the fifth T20I of the series. Well, it's nice and pleasant, a little on the warmer side and a little on the humid side as well. Having said that, this is the smallest playing area we've had so far in this series. Looking at both the sides, it's just 63 meters, straight down it's 74. It's the smallest ground. I think that's going to assist the fact that it's probably going to be high scoring. That will be one of the keys to it. But I just think it looks a little bit tacky to me. I had a little feel of it earlier when we looked down on it. It's quite dry, but underneath I think there's a little bit of moisture. So I think it might be just a little bit tacky. It might hold in the surface a touch. The outfield looks fantastic. That will probably assist the fact that it might be relatively high scoring. I don't think it's a big high 200s sort of a surface, but I just think there'll be enough in it. Groundsman says not a lot of dew, which is a good thing because that's played a bit of a role in the first few games. I just think if you bowl well, if you hit the right line and length on it, there might just be enough there from a slow, low, sticky, caught at mid-off, caught at cover, point of view for the bowlers. The other thing that generally bowlers do get help here because it's kind of an open venue, this one. You have these blocks where the winds blow and that's where the bowlers do get a little bit of lateral movement, swing movement as well. So that's something that definitely does help the bowlers. I still think it'll be on the higher side, this pitch here, would help the batters," Deep Dasgupta and Simon Doull analysed the pitch.
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