IND vs NZ 2nd T20I Highlights: Krunal restricts, Rohit blasts, Rishabh finishes as India level series

Mahendra Singh Dhoni watched from the 22 yards distance as his heir apparent Rishabh Pant showed spunk in a tricky situation, guiding India to a comfortable seven-wicket victory against New Zealand in the second T20 International here Friday

An 80-run defeat in Wellington on Wednesday has definitely bruised the men-in-blue and now, they look to land a counter-punch on the Kiwi face. A mind-boggling batting show from New Zealand left the visitors helpless as the bowlers failed to create an impact. At the same time, the Indian batting yet again got dismantled terribly, ultimately finding themselves at the receiving end.

But Rohit Sharma and his men know how to bounce back as they exhibited the same in the fifth and the last One-Day. New Zealand have dominated India well in the shortest format of the game but it’s time to give it back. The Kiwis currently lead the series 1-0 while had to pull up their socks in order to keep themselves alive in the 3-match series.

The visitors need to have a check on the bowling unit as they didn’t look in the attacking mode last time. In such a crunch situation, the Indian team management could replace Khaleel with either Siddharth Kaul or Mohammad Siraj.

In the batting department, India would be needing Kedar Jadhav who not only strengthens the middle-order but also chips in with the ball to scalp crucial wickets.

As far as the Kiwi side is concerned, the dangerous opening duo of Colin Munro and Seifert put the Indian pacers under tremendous pressure early on in the innings and dismissing them cheaply will be crucial for the visitors' chances.

Coming back into the side after playing just one ODI against India, veteran Tim Southee proved his immense value with tidy figures of 17 runs in four overs including three wickets.

The spinners, Ish Sodhi and Santner, too were on top of the Indian batsmen, sharing two wickets apiece.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Siraj.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson(c), Doug Bracewell, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Scott Kuggeleijn, Colin Munro, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner, James Neesham.