India vs New Zealand, 1st Test: Rohit Sharma's led-Indian cricket team will play its first of the three-Test series with the Tom Latham-led New Zealand cricket team from 16 October onwards at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Also Read | India vs New Zealand 1st Test, Day 1 Live Score
Aiming to win 19th Test series at home in a row since 2012-13, India will begin its series on a high after whitewashing Nazmul Hossain Shanto-led Bangladesh national cricket team by 2-0 in a two-test series in September.
The New Zealand Test series will also help India prepare for a crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia next month.
This test series is an opportunity to seal a spot for India in a third consecutive World Test Championship finals.
The first test will be played from 16-20 October at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The second Test will be played 24-28 October at Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium. While the third and final Test will take place from 1-5 November at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.
All three Test matches will begin from 9.30 am onwards IST.
In total, India and New Zealand have played 62 Test matches, where India won 22, while New Zealand were undefeated on 13 occasions. Twenty-seven were drawn.
India won 17 Tests at home, whole 5 were away from home.
According to the Indian Meteorology Department (IMD), Bengaluru may experience heavy rains over the next few days.
AS per IMD's prediction, the spell between October 14 and October 17 is expected to see plenty of precipitation, with a 70-90% chance of rain on Day 1 and Day 2 of the Test match. The met department also issued thunderstorm warnings and yellow alerts in parts of Karnataka.
Bengaluru offers a good batting surface, but including spinners in the squad has helped both teams in previous Test. Batting first gives an extra edge for the team, so team winning the toss may opt for batting first at M Chinnaswany Stadium.
The India vs New Zealand Test series will be telecast live on Sports 18 and live-streamed on the JioCinema app and website.
India’s squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Travelling Reserves: Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav and Prasidh Krishna
New Zealand's squad: Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Mark Chapman, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell, Ajaz Patel, Ben Sears, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, William O'Rourke
