India looks to wrap up T20 series

Rajkot: After a brilliant performance in the 1st T20 where India secured its maiden win against the New Zealand (in T20Is), the men in blue will be facing the Kiwis in the second T20 in Rajkot on Saturday.

While India will be hoping to wrap up yet another series win with a victory on Saturday New Zealand will definitely look to make a comeback and keep the series alive.

India are currently leading the series 1-0 after defeating the visitors by 53 runs in first match.

In the first T20I India put up a commendable performance as the home side ticked several boxes.

Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan will look to continue from where they left in the last game. Skipper Virat Kohli, who is 12 runs away from becoming the 2nd-highest scorer in T20I history, will look to continue with his attacking line-up and not tinker with the team combination.

However, as Ashish Nehra retired after the first T20I, young Mohammad Siraj might get a look in.

While critics may back the Indian team, New Zealand are no pushovers. They too will know that in the encounter before Delhi they had secured wins in all their previous face-offs.

Drawing inspiration from this, match-winning players in the squad like skipper Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls need to step up.

While Tom Latham was the only Kiwi batsman who looked comfortable at the crease in the first game a will also depend on Martin Guptill who is New Zealand’s most experienced T20 batsman and has the capability to turn a game on its head single-handedly.

Pacer Adam Milne could also get a look in as the Kiwis might look to inject some more threat to their bowling line-up.

Meanwhile, ahead of the match, the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) has also gone on to insure the second game of the T20 International series for Rs 5 crore. But on a placid wicket which a score of more than 200 may well be on the cards.

Teams from

India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips (wk).

Pitch and conditions
The pitch looked completely devoid of grass in the middle of a lush green outfield and usually sluggish and two-paced. 

Stats and trivia

• Only T20I played at Rajkot between India and Australia was the high scoring game with India chase down 202.
• Virat Kohli requires 12 more runs to become the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is. He is currently behind Brendon McCullum (2140) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1889).
• Yuzvendra Chahal needs three wickets to become the joint-highest wicket-taker in T20Is this year along with West Indies' Kesrick Williams and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan.

Match facts
Saturday Nov. 4, 2017
Start time 1900 local (1330 GMT)