India won the toss and elected to bowl against New Zealand in the third ODI at Seddon Park on Tuesday after a two-hour delay caused by rain and a wet outfield.
Leading the five-match series 2-0, India are looking to secure an unassailable lead and clinch the series with two matches to spare. The visitors have retained their playing XI, while New Zealand have made one change, bringing in Matt Fisher in place of Blair Tickner.
The opening two matches of the series were affected by rain. India won the first ODI in Auckland by five wickets after chasing a revised DLS target of 143 in 22.2 overs.
In the second ODI in Wellington, India were declared winners under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method after rain interrupted play with the visitors at 113/7 while chasing 135. India were four runs ahead of the par score when the match was called off.
New Zealand have been dealing with a series of injury and concussion-related setbacks, forcing them to make several replacements over the past week. The hosts need a victory in the third ODI to keep their series hopes alive.
The match also marks Shubman Gill’s final appearance as India’s captain in the series, with several key players, including Gill and KL Rahul, set to miss the remaining two ODIs as they prepare for the subsequent two-match Test series.
A victory would give Gill his first away ODI series triumph as India’s captain. New Zealand, meanwhile, will be eager to bounce back after a disappointing run across the T20I and ODI series.
After winning the toss, Gill said, “Hope the weather clears and that we repeat our performance. Going on and off is quite frustrating, hope we can play continuously.”
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said his team would assess the conditions before deciding on its approach.
“We trained yesterday. Hope to do what we did the other day better. ODIs you think 300 is a good score but 180 would’ve been in the last game. Gotta assess conditions today. One change: Fisher is in for Tickner. Four seamers, they’ll do the majority of the bowling,” Santner said.
Playing XIs:
India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh.
New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Matt Fisher.
(With IANS inputs)
