Courtesy: BCCI
The Indian cricket team will be playing a three-match Test series against New Zealand at home with the first game slated to begin at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru from Wednesday, October 16 onwards. The hosts, who are in first place in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle, will be aiming to get the better of the Black Caps in all the three Test matches, which will secure their passage through to the final of the tournament.
As far as New Zealand are concerned, they have been a part of three Test matches in the subcontinent in the past few weeks, losing two against Sri Lanka apart from a washout against Afghanistan in Greater Noida last month. With the indifferent form of both the teams in the recent Test matches, India will be favourites to defeat New Zealand in the first Test in Bengaluru this week.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at India’s probable playing XI versus New Zealand for the first Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Openers: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c)
Yashasvi Jaiswal was in scintillating form in the recently concluded two-match Test series against Bangladesh, scoring twin fifties to help India win the second game in record time. Rohit Sharma wasn’t quite at his best with the bat against the near neighbours, but his captaincy was on point, and he would like to improve on his batting performance against a highly accomplished New Zealand team in the upcoming three Test matches.
