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India captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in the weather-shortened first Test, which lost its opening day to rain in Bengaluru.
India made two changes from the side that completed a 2-0 sweep of Bangladesh earlier this month.
Batsman Sarfaraz Khan replaced Shubman Gill and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav came in as a third slow bowler in place of seamer Akash Deep.
New Zealand’s Test against Afghanistan near New Delhi was abandoned last month without a ball being bowled and they then lost 2-0 in Sri Lanka.
Tom Latham takes over as captain after fast bowler Tim Southee stepped down following the Sri Lanka defeats. Southee remains in the side as part of a three-pronged seam attack.
Ajaz Patel, who became only the third bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings on New Zealand’s last Test tour to India in 2021, is their sole specialist spinner.
New Zealand have won just two of their 36 previous Tests in India, the last victory coming in 1988 at Mumbai.
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, William O’Rourke
Umpires: Michael Gough (ENG), Paul Reiffel (AUS)
TV umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
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