India wins the toss and beats New Zealand in the rainy 1st cricket test

BENGALURU, India (AP) — India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss Thursday and elected to bat first in the rain-affected opening cricket Test against New Zealand.

Persistent rain prevented a game on the first Wednesday after heavy showers in the previous 48 hours. But the match started on time on Thursday under cloudy and ominous skies and under lights at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

“We want to put runs on the board,” said Sharma after the toss. His New Zealand counterpart Tom Latham also said he would have struggled after the test was shortened to four days.

India made two changes to their XI compared to the last Test with Shubman Gill and Akash Deep missing and replaced by Sarfaraz Khan and Kuldeep Yadav. New Zealand opted for three seamers and the spin of Ajaz Patel as Mitchell Santner was unavailable.

India are at the top of the World Test Championship standings and a 3-0 win in this series against New Zealand would all but secure their place in the final at Lord's next June.

After the 2-0 win against Bangladesh in the previous Test series, a full Indian squad was once again available.

New Zealand is already on a long subcontinental tour. It started with a poor test against Afghanistan in Greater Noida, India, followed by a 2-0 series defeat in Sri Lanka.

The second Test will be played in Pune from October 24 and the third in Mumbai from November 1.

___

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, William O'Rourke

___

AP Cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket