Arshdeep Singh replaced Ishan Kishan in India’s playing XI for the fourth T20I against New Zealand at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Explaining the reason, captain Suryakumar Yadav mentioned that the keeper-batter picked up a niggle in the third T20I and was unavailable for selection.
In the meantime, Shreyas Iyer would have been Kishan’s ideal replacement at number three. However, the team management decided to bring in an extra bowler in the middle. Suryakumar noted that it might put some pressure on the batting unit but given that the T20 World Cup 2026 is around the corner, it would help them with some practice if a difficult situation arises during the tournament. He also confirmed that Axar Patel is yet to recover completely from the injury he suffered in the first T20I.
“Arshdeep comes in for Ishan Kishan, who picked up a niggle in the last game. Axar Patel still needs a bit more time, so hopefully we’ll see him in the next game. The batters will need to take a bit more responsibility, but at the same time not shy away from playing with fearless intent. We’ve got five good bowling options today, so we’ll see how it goes,” Suryakumar said after the toss.
India win toss, elect to field
India won the toss and elected to field first in Visakhapatnam. Interestingly, Varun Chakravarthy is still out of the playing XI as the team management once again fielded the pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi.
On the other hand, New Zealand have made one change to their combination. Kyle Jamieson replaced Zak Foulkes, who had a difficult outing in the third T20I.
New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (c), Zakary Foulkes, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah