Team India has to play a 5-match T20 International series against New Zealand from today i.e. Wednesday, January 21. The first match is to be played in Nagpur. Although the playing eleven of Team India is set for this match, but coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav will have to fight hard for one place. Regarding the number 3 position, captain Suryakumar Yadav has already confirmed that Ishan Kishan will play in place of Tilak Verma, who is also a part of the T20 World Cup 2025 squad. In such a situation, Shreyas Iyer will have to sit out. In such a situation, every batsman from number 1 to number 7 is fit. In which the openers will be Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. Ishan Kishan will be at number 3, captain Suryakumar Yadav at number 4, Hardik Pandya at number 5, Shivam Dubey at number 6 and all-rounder and vice-captain Akshar Patel at number 7. The real fight is for number 8, about which we will talk further, but before that know that Jasprit Bumrah will be at number 9, Arshdeep Singh will be seen playing at number 10 and Varun Chakraborty will be seen playing at number 11. If we talk about number 8, then two players are contenders for it, one of which is Kuldeep Yadav and the other is Rinku Singh. If you want to compromise a bit in bowling then you can play Rinku Singh as an extra batsman and finisher, but if you want proper spin and wicket taking option then you should go with Kuldeep Yadav. Apart from this, the option of playing Kuldeep is also that you leave out Arshdeep Singh and expect Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dubey to bowl at least 4 to 6 overs, the rest will be filled by Kuldeep, Akshar, Varun and Bumrah. You can also give a chance to Rinku Singh in place of Shivam Dubey and play Kuldeep and Varun, Arshdeep and Bumrah together.
Possible playing eleven of Team India
Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav/Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakraborty.
