Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah sat out as New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the third and final Test of the 2024 series at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.
Bumrah is unwell, said India captain Rohit Sharma at the toss. According to the BCCI, Bumrah has not fully recovered from "his viral illness." He was replaced by Mohd Siraj.
There were rumors that Bumrah would be rested, but head coach Gautam Gambhir and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar ruled out the possibility of resting senior players, for India has already lost the Test series 0-2.
New Zealand has two changes in the squad; Mitchell Santner, who was the hero of the second Test, was out with a side strain, along with Tim Southee. Matt Henry, who had a fitness test on Thursday, and Ish Sodhi came into the squad.
Talking about the decision to bat first, Latham said they want to put runs on the board and create pressure for India.
"We batted reasonably well on the wickets too. Want to score as many runs as possible in this game and then, later on, exert more pressure. Focusing on that now. That's what happened in Pune after we came out good in Bengaluru too. But that is last week. This a new opportunity in this match," said Latham speaking at the toss.
About the change in New Zealand's fortunes since the Sri Lanka tour in which they went down 0-2, Latham said they did not play all that badly there and things can go wrong anytime in a Test match.
"It is a funny game, Test cricket. In Sri Lanka, we did not play all that badly but you could fall on the wrong side of the results. Not much has changed here, we have kept things simple," he said.
He said the pitch looks good. "Regardless of whether batting or bowling first, it is about adjusting to the surface. We've got two changes: Santner has a side strain and Southee is out. Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi are in."
With the pitch expected to provide copious turn later in the match, India skipper Rohit Sharma said he too would have batted first.
"We would have batted first as well. We accept that we haven't played well in this series. But this is a chance to correct it. Hopefully, we can shut them out quickly," he said.
He said that this is the match now where they are thinking of it, but there's one more thing behind-the-scenes in their minds-that's the World Test Championship final.
"Right now our focus is on this Test match. On the back of the mind, you need to keep in mind about that, but right now we need to play our best cricket which we haven't this series," he said.
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