Big picture: Sanju Samson or Ishan Kishan?
A lot has changed since then. Tilak Varma’s freak injury gave Kishan a chance to bat at No. 3 against New Zealand and he grabbed it, smashing 76 off 32 balls in the second T20I and 28 off 13 in the third. With Samson scoring 10, 6 and 0 in the first three T20Is, the debate has begun: should Kishan replace Samson in the XI when Tilak returns?
India WWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
New Zealand LLLWW
In the spotlight: Abhishek Sharma and Lockie Ferguson
Team news: New Zealand get reinforcements
Continuing with their rotation policy, India could bring back Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakravarthy for Jasprit Bumrah and Ravi Bishnoi.
India (probable): 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Neesham and Ferguson could come straight into the XI, replacing Kyle Jamieson and Jacob Duffy.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 James Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Ish Sodhi
“Sanju is one knock away from that confidence, getting that form back. We all know the cliché that form is temporary. Building up to the World Cup, it’s important for the guys to find that peak performance at the right time. He is training well, he is hitting the ball very well, so I think it’s just a matter of time for him to get a score on the board. We’ve got a couple of games before the start of the World Cup and I have no doubt that Sanju will find his form.”
India bowling coach Morne Morkel
“To sing our winning team song after a nice victory against a good side would be cool, but at the same time, you’ve got to look a bit deeper than wins and losses. And that’s not downplaying the results here, but we’ve got to make sure that we’re looking at the longer term and the bigger picture as well. And historically, New Zealand have peaked well during the ICC events.”
New Zealand bowling coach Jacob Oram
