India 54/1 in 10.5 Overs | India vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st ODI: Rain halts play as Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli maintain India’s chase after Rohit’s early dismissal

India vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st ODI: India won the toss and elected to bowl in the first ODI against New Zealand here at Eden Park on Wednesday as the Men in Blue play a five-match ODI series for the first time since March 2019.

With the ODI World Cup in contention, veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are back in the mix. But captain Shubman Gill will be wary of his limited resources and look to start with a win to take an early lead in the series, with the team shuffling for the last two matches.

New Zealand too were dealing with a number of injuries before the start of the series. While Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra continue to recover from their injuries, regular starter Devon Conway was ruled out the day before the game after colliding with Matt Henry during training.

Despite these setbacks, the hosts have a well-rounded unit, with Glenn Phillips coming off a record T20I series. Meanwhile, the visitors will be without two key starters Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya while Prasidh Krishna has also been ruled out due to injury. Both teams therefore considered their playing elevens before the first game.

When he won the toss, Indian captain Shubman Gill mentioned that the side was aware of the clouds and had gone with four fast bowlers and two all-rounders in Naman Dhir and Axar Patel.

“We’ll be bowling first, a little overcast and in case the overs get cut, it’s good to chase it. The conditions here will be similar to SA (hosting the World Cup) compared to some other places. We’ll go with Anshul, Auqib, Gurnoor, Arshdeep as bowlers with Naman and Axar as all-rounders,” Gill said.

Meanwhile, Blackcaps captain Mitchell Santner said: “We’ve got to go again on another good pitch. There’s been a bit more rotation with the rosters. Conway is doing well. He’ll be rested and obviously won’t play today. So Seifert gets a chance and like India we’ve got four pacers as well.

Playing XI:

India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh.

New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner