Mitchell Santner wins first toss of series as India bat in final T20I

Hamilton: New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner finally won his first toss of the series as he asked India to bat first in the fifth and final T20I of the series at Seddon Park here on Sunday.

Having lost all the previous four tosses, Santner had his luck with the coin and opted to bowl first for the fifth rubber as both teams made changes to their sides.

India have brought back Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Varun Chakravarthy as Mayank Yadav and Axar Patel missed out. For New Zealand, Blair Tickner back in for Matt Fisher as both teams rotated their personnel.

“I just assumed I’d lose the toss. We’ll have a bowl. Obviously a new pitch. Might be a little bit of dew later. Have to adapt quickly to the dimensions. If there’s a bit of bounce like Eden Park, it will be nice. Obviously, with the bat, we’ve been good this whole series. Was obviously a bit more in the wicket the other night which was nice for the seamers. One change. Tickner is back,” New Zealand captain Santner said at the toss.

Meanwhile, Shreyas wanted to bat first anyhow and got his wish despite having lost a rare toss. “Great occasion to come here on this historical ground. We were looking to bat, wanted to test ourselves batting first. Auckland, the dimensions were different.

“But credit where it’s due, Phillips played an incredible knock. Two changes, Varun comes in, and Bhuvi comes in. He’s been waiting for his opportunity and even in the huddle he gave a beautiful speech today,” Shreyas said after losing the toss.

Bhuvneshwar was dropped for the previous match after he had not set the stage on fire during the three T20Is where he bowled. Chakravarthy has made a return after missing out on the one-off T20I against Japan and the Asian Games due to an abdominal side strain he picked up during the Afghanistan series.

Meanwhile, teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi remained on the bench after having played only in two matches in this series when he came in for the then-injured Ishan Kishan.

India have an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. The Men in Blue won the first three matches to seal the series, while the Blackcaps bounced in the fourth match. Both sides look to end on a high note.

Playing XIs:

New Zealand: Tim Seifert (w), Finn Allen, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner

India: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (w), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy