India have made one change to their Playing XI with Jasprit Bumrah making way for Mohammed Siraj. India captain Rohit Sharma revealed the reason behind Bumrah’s absence in the third Test. India are looking to avoid a whitewash.
New Zealand have made two changes to their Playing XI with Mitchell Santner out with a side strain. Ish Sodhi comes in for him. The Kiwis have replaced former skipper Tim Southee with Matt Henry for the final game. The hosts are going without their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the third and final Test at the Wankhede Stadium and captain Rohit Sharma has revealed a concerning reason behind his absence.
Rohit Sharma revealed that Bumrah is not well and misses out on the game. “We understand that we haven’t played well in this series. Looks like a good pitch. Hopefully, we can restrict them as quickly as possible. Our focus is on this Test match. Bumrah is not well, Siraj comes in for him,” Rohit said at the toss.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has revealed that Bumrah is not playing as he has not recovered from a viral. “UPDATE: Mr Jasprit Bumrah has not fully recovered from his viral illness. He was unavailable for selection for the third Test in Mumbai,” BCCI wrote on social media.
New Zealand skipper Latham also confirmed the changes at the toss. “We are gonna have a bat. Looks a reasonably good surface, hopefully, put some runs on the board again and put a little bit of pressure later on. Definitely focusing on this game. We spoke about it before the second Test in Pune. What we did in Bangalore was great, but we had to switch our focus quickly to that second Test and nothing changes.
“A new opportunity in this game. It’s a funny game – Test cricket. In Sri Lanka, I don’t think we played all that badly. Unfortunately, you can just fall on the wrong side of the result. I don’t think we have changed a lot in the last two weeks. We have tried to keep things simple and play our brand of cricket. We are hoping for more of the same in this game. It’s about adapting to the surface as quickly as possible. Mitch Santner has got a little bit of a side strain. Ish Sodhi comes in. Matt Henry is fit and he comes in for Tim Southee,” Latham said.
New Zealand’s Playing XI: Tom Latham(c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell(w), Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel, William ORourke
India’s Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj
