3 changes India can make in their playing XI for 2nd T20I against New Zealand

After winning the three-match ODI series by a massive margin of 3-0, the Indian team was handed a defeat by the Mitchell Santner-led New Zealand in the first of the three-match T20I series. India’s stand-in T20I skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bowl first at the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi.

Although Indian bowling looked a bit helpless after a good start courtesy of young all-rounder Washington Sundar. Arshdeep Singh was one of the major bowling backfires in the T20I series opener against the visitors. The 23-year-old conceded 51 runs with a horrific economy rate of 12.75 in his quota of four overs and could scalp only one wicket.

Later on, the Indian top-order also failed to live up to the expectations the hosts lost their top 3 early on the score of only 15 runs in 3.1 overs including both the openers Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan.

With said that, here we’ll have a look at 3 possible changes that the Indian management could make while picking the playing XI for the second of the three-match T20I series at the AB Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.

Prithvi Shaw in place of Ishan Kishan

Prithvi Shaw (Image Source: Twitter)

The 24-year-old young Jharkhand batter Ishan Kishan has failed to deliver up to the expectations just after his comeback in the Indian team after getting benched for the entire ODI series against Sri Lanka. Ishan has made 5 white-ball appearances including three ODIs and 2 T20Is. In these appearances, the young southpaw has registered scores of 1, 5, 8*, 17, and 4 respectively.

On the other hand, the young Mumbai batter Prithvi made it to the T20I squad of India after a long time of being ignored by the selectors. Later on, he was also excluded from India’s playing XI for the 1^st T20I against New Zealand. Considering Ishan’s lean patch with the bat, the skipper Hardik Pandya might think of adding Prithvi Shaw to the playing XI for the second T20I of the series.

Mukesh Kumar in place of Arshdeep Singh

Arshdeep Singh has been dubbed one of the brilliant prospects for the team India for death overs in the future. But the performance in the last T20I appearance against New Zealand has left the young speedster under the scanner. The Kiwi batters smashed 51 runs in Arshdeep’s four overs and the latter could take only one wicket.

Going for the sake of a change and giving a chance to some new faces, the management could give a debut call for the pacer Mukesh Kumar who is also a part of the Indian squad for the ongoing three-match T20I series against the Blackcaps.

Jitesh Patel in place of Deepak Hooda

The middle-order batter and spin-allrounder Deepak Hooda disappointed with his performance with the bat. He could score only 10 runs off 10 balls in the first T20I of the three-match series against the Kiwis.

Notably, Hooda hasn’t delivered any sort of remarkable since his T20I century against Ireland in the two-match T20I series in June 2022 last year. So, it would also be a choice for the Indian team management to pick between Jitesh Patel and Deepak Hooda. The former might be a good fit as he can also deliver his services as a wicketkeeper for the team if Ishan Kishan misses making it to the playing XI.