Why is Kane Williamson not playing today’s 1st T20I between India and New Zealand in Jaipur?

Kane Williamson not playing: New Zealand have made as many as four changes to their Playing XI from the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 final.

During the first T20I of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of India in Jaipur, India captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and chose to field in the first-ever T20I at this venue.

“We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, thought behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practicing from a couple of days. It’s been good, has been only two days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days at home and back here,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.

India have made as many as six changes to the Playing XI which had played against Namibia in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai last week.

Batter Shreyas Iyer, debutant all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, all-rounder Axar Patel and fast bowling trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Siraj have been included for Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar.

“We have Shreyas Iyer back. Venkatesh [Iyer] is debuting. Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], [Mohammed] Siraj and [Deepak] Chahar are back. We’re playing three seamers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it’s a lot of time ahead,” Sharma added.

Why is Kane Williamson not playing vs India?

New Zealand, on the other hand, have made four changes to their Playing XI which had played against Australia in the final match of the World Cup. While regular captain Kane Williamson has been rested for the whole series in a bid to let him prepare for the upcoming two-match Test series, all-rounder James Neesham, fast bowler Adam Milne and spinner Ish Sodhi have been rested for this match.

“We’d have bowled as well, keeping dew factor in mind. Pretty disappointed at not winning the World Cup but this is a great place to play cricket and the team is looking forward to it. Four changes for us – Mark Chapman, Todd Astle, Rachin Ravindra and Lockie Ferguson are in,” New Zealand stand-in captain Tim Southee told Star Sports at the toss.

india playing without their ravindra but new zealand have one! #INDvNZ

— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) November 17, 2021

Southee, 32, has led New Zealand in 19 T20Is in the past. Under Southee, New Zealand have won 12 and lost six T20Is.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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