Cricket: Cricket-India elect to bat first against New Zealand in rain-hit first test

BENGALURU (Reuters) – India won the toss and opted to bat first under cloudy skies on the second day of the rain-hit opening test against New Zealand on Thursday.

The first day’s action was called off without a ball being bowled due to rain with more bad weather expected this week.

India made two changes to their team, bringing in Sarfaraz Khan for injured batsman Shubman Gill and spinner Kuldeep Yadav for pace bowler Akash Deep.

“The pitch has been under the covers for a couple of days and we do understand it will be sticky to start with,” India skipper Rohit Sharma said.

“Keeping that in mind, we wanted to put runs on the board. It’s a tricky one because you lose the entire day and have four days to play. A lot can happen over the four days as well and you want to get the result as much as possible.”

New Zealand, under new permanent captain Tom Latham, are looking to win their first match against India since 1988. The tourists are without batting anchor Kane Williamson for the match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

They face a daunting task against India, who have won 18 consecutive series on home soil since a 2-1 defeat by England in 2012.

The Black Caps went with three seam bowlers in Tim Southee, William O’Rourke and Matt Henry, as they look to make the most of early overcast conditions.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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