India won the toss and elected to bowl first in the third T20I against New Zealand, being played at the Barsapara stadium in Guwahati on January 25. India made two changes in their playing XI as Jasprit Bumrah and Ravi Bishnoi walked back into the fold in place of Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakaravarthy. India are currently leading the series 2-0 having won the first two matches.
What did the captains say after the toss?
India captain Suryakumar Yadav, after the toss, said:
"We'll look to bowl first. Wicket looks good, there'll be dew later on. Be fearless, take your own call, enjoy and be humble at the same time. Two changes. Arshdeep and Varun resting tonight, Bumrah and Bishnoi come in."
Meanwhile, Mitchell Santner, after losing the toss, said:
"I thought we batted quite well. Take learnings from the last game and put it into this game. Move on pretty quickly. Neesh was going to play, we've brought Jamieson for Foulkes."
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New Zealand's Playing XI:
Devon Conway, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner(c), Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy
India's Playing XI:
Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah
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Pitch Report
"It's the third game of the series and we are in the hills. We are in Guwahati for the third game of the series. Dimensions - 64m and 66m square boundaries, straight down at 74m. This strip plays much better than it looks. It looks okay for now, to be honest. It doesn't look a bad pitch at all. It's got a nice grass covering on it. I think that will assist the ball coming onto the bat quite nicely. It's old grass, it's quite dead., it's brown. So I just think it will slide onto the bat really nicely. A few cracks. Not as many as we saw in the first couple of games. And not really that sheen on the surface either, but that will come later, won't it? We're going to talk about the dew because that plays a role, but it might just play a role for the whole game again. You would want to chase, I would expect. Especially because of the dew factor, even though they've put chemicals and all, it might not be as visible in the outfield, but on the pitch and that is the reason, the first half, it is on the drier side as of now. Again, when the game starts later in the evening, you'll see the difference in the look, how this pitch looks as well. So you definitely want to chase because the dew will make this pitch better to bat on in the second half," Deep Dasgupta and Simon Doull analysed the pitch.