India Drop Star Batter As Gill Returns From Injury In 2nd Test Against NZ

Shubman Gill returned to India's playing XI as New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test in Pune on Thursday. The hosts made three big changes on the back of an eight-wicket defeat in the series-opener in Bengaluru last week. Gill missed the first Test match in Bengaluru due to a stiff neck but head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed ahead of the second Test that the youngster has recovered completely. Gill replaced out-of-form star KL Rahul, while India also dropped Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav, respectively. Akash Deep and Washington Sundar replaced Kuldeep and Siraj in the playing XI.

Meanwhile, New Zealand made one change to their playing eleven bringing in left-arm spinner Mitchell Santer in place of injured pacer Matt Henry.

India captain Rohit Sharma admitted he would've loved to bat first in Pune.

"I would have batted as well . Whatever the pitch is we have to play good cricket. Lot of positives. No matter what the situation of the game is, you always try and come back into the game. That is what we did. At the end, not a lot of runs on the board. A little drier [the pitch]. We do understand how important the first 10-15 overs. We have made three changes," Rohit said at the toss.

"It [the pitch] might produce a bit of spin as we expect from his part of the town. It was a really proud moment [the win]. We celebrated that but our focus has turned to Pune. It is just adapting to the surface and adapt as soon as possible. We have a good opportunity with the bat. One change," the opposition skipper added.

India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand XI: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, William O'Rourke

More to follow...