India to bat first in decider against New Zealand

Kanpur [Uttar Pradesh], October 29 (ANI): Virat Kohli-led Team India will bat first in their third and final One-Day International (ODI) against New Zealand here at the Green Park stadium on Sunday, to clinch the 1-1 levelled series.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to have a bowl first.

"We are going to have a bowl. I don't think it will seam as much but still there should be some help and then dew later on in the game. Whatever we do here, the wickets tend to be generally good surfaces and the team that plays the better cricket wins. It is a great opportunity for us and we want to enjoy it out there," Williamson said.

India skipper Virat Kohli said, "It looks a good wicket. We would have been okay with batting or bowling first but keeping the dew in mind, maybe batting second was better. Irrespective of what we do first, we need to do it well."

The hosts equalled the series with a six-wicket win at Pune, with the help of half-centuries coming from Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik.

Earlier, the Black Caps defeated India in the first ODI match at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

The luck, however, lies in favour of India as they have never lost any of the five ODI series, played against New Zealand on home ground.

The team blue have an excellent home record has they have won eight of the last nine bilateral series here, with their only loss coming against South Africa in 2015-16 season when they lost to 2-3 to them.

The squads for third ODI are as follows:

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, M.S. Dhoni (w), Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

New Zealand (Playing XI): Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (w), Henry Nicholls, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Trent Boult (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI