Sehwag leading India loses toss, New Zealand batting

Napier, March 26 (IANS) Virender Sehwag, leading India in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is out with a back problem, lost the toss and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori decided to bat in the second cricket Test here at McLean Park Thursday.

Dinesh Karthik comes into the side for Dhoni as wicketkeeper-batsman, the only change in the Indian side that won the first Test in four days at Hamilton's Seddon Park last week.

New Zealand made two changes - off-spinner Jeetan Patel for off-form Kyle Mills and batsman Jaimie How for injured Daniel Flynn.

Sehwag thought it was good toss to lose as the pitch appeared to him hard with good bounce. He hoped his bowlers could exploit the fresh pitch in humid conditions like they did on the first morning at Hamilton when they took six wickets.

Vettori also chose to bat for the precise reason, a hard, belter of a pitch which has a reputation to be batsman-friendly.

Surprisingly, the home team is going into the Test with two spinners whereas the Indian side has only one in their line-up.

The teams:

India: Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel. 12th man: Murali Vijay

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Jaimie How, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum (wicketkeeper), Jeetan Patel, Iain O'Brien, Chris Martin. 12th man: Kyle Mills

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Ian Gould (England). TV umpire: Evan Watkin (New Zealand).

Match referee: Alan Hurst (Australia).

-- Indo-Asian News Service

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