2020 India Tour of New Zealand First T20I @ Auckland Friday Jan 24,2020

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul(w), Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami

New Zealand (Playing XI): Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson(c), Tim Seifert(w), Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Hamish Bennett

The hosts have recalled Hamish Bennett, who last played an international in 2017, to join Tim Southee, Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn in the pace attack, with Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi making up the spin department. Where are the rest? Well, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry are all injured. Another worry for them will be Santner's form, as he picked only one wicket in four Test innings in Australia. A different format, though, could do it for the left-arm spinner who took his best T20I figures - 4 for 11 - against India, in 2016.

There's more experience to fall back on in the batting department, with Kane Williamson, who returns after missing the T20Is against England, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor and Colin Munro making the top and middle order.

The series will also be the first big one for both teams in the year of the T20 World Cup later this year, with over 20 matches to go for each.

India are also without a few injured players - Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar - but their depth in reserves has hardly ever been stronger

With Sanju Samson replacing Shikhar Dhawan in the 16-man squad, it remains to be seen if he and Pandey will get a chance if Rishabh Pant gets to play as wicketkeeper and KL Rahul plays purely as a batsman.

India beat New Zealand by 6 wickets

Scorecard

New Zealand            203/5 in 20 Overs
India                         204/4 in 19 Overs
Match Result            India won by 6 wickets
MOM                       Shreyas Iyer
Series Result            India lead the 5-Match T20I series by 1-0

Put to bat first New Zealand scored 203 in 20 overs with opener Martin Guptill scoring 30(19 Balls 4x4 and 6x1) and half centuries by Colin Munro 59(42 Balls 4x6 and 6x2) Kane Williamson 51 (26 Balls 4x4 and 6x4)and Ross Taylor 54*(2 Balls 4x3 and 6x3)

Chasing 204 for victory K L Rahul 56(27  Balls 4x4 and 6x3) Virat kohli 45(32 Balls 4x3 and 6x1) and Shreyas Iyer 58*(29 Balls 4x5 and 6x3) helped India to achieve victory and take 1-0 lead in the 5-Match T20I Series

Match Highlights

First instance of five 50+ scores in a T20I:
C Munro 59
K Williamson 51
R Taylor 54*
KL Rahul 56
S Iyer 58*

Chasing targets > 200 most times in T20Is
4 India
2 Australia
Once each by SA, NZ, WI, England, Bangladesh & Qatar.

Highest targets chased down by India (T20I)
208 v WI Hyderabad 2019
207 v SL Mohali 2009
204 v NZ Auckland 2020 *
202 v Aus Rajkot 2013
199 v Eng Bristol 2018
198 v Aus SCG 2016

Only once a higher target chased down vs NZ - 244 by Aus at the same venue in 2018