IND vs NZ toss update: Rohit Sharma forgets decision after winning toss; then tries to remember for about 15 seconds

Neither of India or New Zealand have made any change to their Playing XI for the second of a three-match ODI series. In what is the first-ever ODI in Raipur, it has made the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium the 50th Indian venue to host an international cricket match.

Coming on the back of a thrilling first ODI in Hyderabad on Wednesday, both teams persisting with the same Playing XI in spite of scope of making changes is an encouraging sign with respect to captains backing their players and not leaving them out after just one failure.

India captain Rohit Sharma, who had won the toss and chose to bat in the last match, has won the toss and chose to bowl today. Having said that, Sharma’s decision appears to have been derived from a lot of ambiguity. In fact, the 35-year old player completely forgot about his decision at first.

Rohit Sharma forgets decision after winning toss in hilarious incident

As a result, he ended up taking a lot of time to put on display a hilarious little incident. With commentator Ravi Shastri, New Zealand captain Tom Latham and match referee Javagal Srinath waiting for Sharma’s decision, the Indian skipper looked quite puzzled in the middle.

“I forgot what we wanted to do, had plenty of discussions with the team about the toss decision. Just wanted to challenge ourselves under difficult conditions, but we’ll bowl first,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss. Calling the match in the first half an hour, Shastri was even heard having a laugh about the incident with his co-commentators.

Much like Sharma, Latham also wanted to bowl first in this match because of lack of knowledge regarding the venue. “We would have bowled first as well. First international game here, so, not sure how this wicket will play,” Latham told Star Sports at the toss.

With him throwing light on spinner Ish Sodhi’s fitness, it is safe to assume that New Zealand would have played him had he been fit enough to take the field today. “Ish [Sodhi] hasn’t still pulled up well, so, we’re playing the same team,” Latham added.