India drops star batter as Shubman Gill returns from injury in second Test against New Zealand

Shubman Gill returned to India's starting XI as New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat in the second Test in Pune on Thursday. The hosts made three big changes after an eight-wicket defeat in the series opener in Bengaluru last week. Gill missed the first Test match in Bengaluru due to a stiff neck, but head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed before the second Test that the youngster has made a full recovery. Gill replaced out-of-form star KL Rahul while India also dropped Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav respectively. Akash Deep and Washington Sundar replaced Kuldeep and Siraj in the starting XI.

Meanwhile, New Zealand made a change to their playing XI, bringing in left-arm spinner Mitchell Santer in place of injured pacer Matt Henry.

India captain Rohit Sharma admitted he would have liked to bat first in Pune.

“I would have fought too. No matter what pitch we play on, we have to play good cricket. Lots of positive aspects. No matter what the situation of the game is, you always try to get back into the game. That’s what we did “In the end there aren’t many runs on the pitch. We understand how important the first 10-15 overs are,” Rohit said while tossing.

“It (the pitch) could attract a bit of a stir, as we expect from its part of the city. It was a really proud moment (the win). We celebrated this but our focus is on Pune. It's just an adjustment to that.” “We have a good opportunity with the bat to pop up and adapt,” the opposition captain added.

India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (week), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand XI: Tom Latham (lead), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (week), Glenn Phillips, Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, William O'Rourke

More to come…