Why India Chose to Bat Second vs New Zealand? Suryakumar Yadav Breaks It Down
Suryakumar Yadav explained his decision to bat second during the IND vs NZ 4th T20I which took place on Wednesday. The hosts lost their third consecutive match after winning three matches when New Zealand defeated them by 50 runs in Visakhapatnam which disrupted their T20 World Cup 2026 preparation. India lost their first match of the five-match series after they could only score 165 runs while chasing New Zealand's 215-run target.
Yadav explained during the post-match presentation that the team selected six batters with five bowlers because they wanted to evaluate their performance before the T20 World Cup. The Indian captain explained that the team wanted to evaluate their response to high target chasing after losing two to three wickets during their previous matches when they chose to bat first. SKY explained that India needed to establish a strong partnership to win the match but this did not occur on Wednesday.
Sky told: “We purposely played six batters. Wanted to have five bowlers and challenge ourselves. We wanted to play the players who were part of the World Cup squad. We have been batting well batting first. Wanted us to see how we bat when two or three down while chasing 180-200. With heavy dew, one or two partnerships like Dube batted, one partnership could have made a difference.”
New Zealand secured an excellent start because Tim Seifert (62 off 36 balls) and Devon Conway (44 off 23) constructed a 100-run opening partnership.
Shivam Dube led India’s chase with an excellent 65-run performance. Abhishek Sharma departed for a golden duck, Sanju Samson scored only 24, skipper SKY managed 8, while Rinku Singh contributed 39 runs.