Having lost their first international match this year during the first T20I last Friday in Ranchi, team India bounced back during the second T20I in Lucknow, by just getting over the line in what turned out to be a low-scoring thriller.
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With the three-match series score line reading 1-1, the action for the final T20I will move towards the Western part of India, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on February 1.
Having huffed and puffed towards the paltry target off 99 runs on the penultimate delivery of the match, team India’s captain for the series, Hardik Pandya, had expressed his disappointment on the nature of pitches during both the T20Is with them turning square for the spinners throughout the match duration.
New Zealand, on the other hand, have fared up decently well in the T20I series, after getting whitewashed by the hosts 0-3, during the ODI series earlier.
They now have a wonderful opportunity to beat India, and become only the third team after Australia and West Indies in the past eight years, to defeat them in a T20I series at home.
Pitch report of Narendra Modi Stadium
The Narendra Modi stadium last hosted a T20I back in March 2021 between India and England, which the hosts had prevailed by 36 runs.
Half-centuries off the bats of then skipper Virat Kohli (80) and Rohit Sharma (64) had helped team India register their fifth-highest T20I total at home (224/2), and the seventh-highest overall during the above mentioned match.
A high-scoring venue for sure, but this pitch in Ahmedabad has a tendency to remain low and slow as well during the first-half of the match, which then eases out for the batters as the match progresses.
Pacers have had more success at this venue as compared to spinners, particularly with the variations and judicious use of the shorter deliveries, considering the relatively larger boundary dimensions here.
Overall, the fresh pitch with decent carry off the surface with the new ball will likely hand batters the advantage. The average score across the six T20Is at this venue stands at 176.4, which is indicative enough as to who is likely to have a bigger say come Wednesday.
With the dew likely to be a factor later in the evening, expect the captain winning the Toss to field first. For the defending side, score in the vicinity of the 180-run mark will be imperative.
