India opts to bat against New Zealand

Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test against New Zealand at the Eden Gardens that began here on Friday.

India made two changes from the team that played the first Test at Kanpur. Shikhar Dhawan replaced the injured Lokesh Rahul, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar made it to the final 11 in place of Umesh Yadav.

New Zealand suffered jolt with their regular skipper Kane Williamson ruled out of the game due to indisposition. Ross Taylor went for the toss as the stand-in captain.

The visitors made three changes from the first Test team. Henry Nicholls, Matt Henry and Jeetan Patel are part of the playing 11 in place of Kane Williamson, Mark Craig and Ish Sodhi.

The teams:

India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Murali Vijay.

New Zealand: Ross Taylor (c), Matt Henry, Luke Ronchi, Henry Nicholls, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Jeetan Patel, Mitchell Santner, BJ Walting

Umpires: R Kettleborough and RJ Tucker

TV umpire: CK Nandan

Match referee: DC Boon

Reserve umpire: Nitin Menon

--IANS

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