Why Virat Kohli is not playing today: Why is Yuzi Chahal not playing today’s 1st T20I between India and New Zealand?

Virat Kohli is not playing: India have made as many as six changes to their Playing XI from their last T20I in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

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. Readers must note that this is also the first international match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in the last eight years.

“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.

Much like Sharma, New Zealand captain Tim Southee also wanted to field first tonight. Expressing disappointment at losing the World Cup final against Australia on Sunday, Southee mentioned that they are looking forward to this three-match series.

“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,” Southee told Star Sports at the toss.

Why Virat Kohli is not playing today vs New Zealand?

Having played their last T20I against Namibia last week, India have made as many as six changes to their Playing XI. Considering the nature of their 16-member T20I squad for this series, India were always expected to make numerous changes for this match.

“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.

It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned played have replaced Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar in the Playing XI. As far as Kohli is concerned, the former Indian T20I captain has been rested not just for this series but also the forthcoming first Test match in Kanpur.

India’s XI for this match means that batter Ruturaj Gaikwad, wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan, pacer-duo of Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal are warming the bench.

Chahal, who was among the players recalled to the squad after missing the World Cup, primarily missed out on playing this match due to India’s strategy of playing three pacers. While spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was unlikely to be dropped, Axar Patel is playing the role of an all-rounder. Hence, Chahal has lost his spot to a third fast bowler.