Suryakumar Yadav wins toss, elects to bat first against New Zealand

In the fifth T20I against New Zealand Team India skipper Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and elected to bat first at the Greenfield International Stadium in ThiruvananthapuramTeam Indias management will be expecting wicketkeeperbatsman Sanju Samson to deliver a big knock tonight Also inform Ishan Kishan who missed out on the previous clash due to injury has made a return to the sideAdditionally Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy have also returned to the playing XIThe match will be the last clash for both teams before entering the T20 World Cup 2026 The marquee tournament is scheduled to begin from February 7 and will be cohosted by India and Sri LankaAfter winning the toss the hosts skipper Suryakumar said Wersquove decided to bat first as there was heavy dew last night and we want to put our bowlers under a proper test The curator feels the pitch will stay true across the full forty overs even without much grass on it Axar Ishan and Varun return to the XI and itrsquos great to have Sanju Samson playing here in Trivandrum Tilak is very close hersquos taking his time through practice games and once hersquos back wersquoll be a stronger unit This series has pushed us in different conditions and situations which is exactly what we want at this stage Each game has offered a new lesson and the focus has been on carrying those learnings forwardOn the other hand New Zealands skipper Mitchell Santner said Therersquos a bit more wind around tonight so conditions could behave slightly differently from the last game Bowling first has been a strong area for us in this series and wersquore happy to take on that challenge again Wersquove made four changes Finn comes in for Conway Jacobs replaces Chapman KJ returns and Lockie comes in for Matt Henry A couple of these moves are precautionary with minor niggles wersquore keen to manage carefully Matt Henryrsquos workload is being monitored so rotation is important with bigger games coming up Having Finn and Lockie back adds quality and this match is another step in building toward the business endIND vs NZ 5th T20I Confirmed Playing XIIndia Abhishek Sharma Sanju Samson WK Ishan Kishan Suryakumar Yadav C Rinku Singh Hardik Pandya Shivam Dube Axar Patel Arshdeep Singh Varun Chakaravarthy Jasprit BumrahNew Zealand Tim Seifert WK Finn Allen Rachin Ravindra Glenn Phillips Daryl Mitchell Bevon Jacobs Mitchell Santner C Kyle Jamieson Ish Sodhi Lockie Ferguson Jacob Duffy