India steady after Rahul dismissal

Playing their 500th Test match, India chose to bat on a cracked Green Park pitch that is expected to be good to bat on initially before becoming increasingly conducive to spin. They went in with six batsmen, a keeper, and just the four bowlers, as they had done in their last Test match against West Indies in Port-of-Spain.

This meant Cheteshwar Pujara stayed at No. 3 and Rohit Sharma at No. 6, with M Vijay and KL Rahul taking the opening slots. India went with a bowling attack containing two spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and two seamers in Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, chosen ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar with reverse-swing expected to play a bigger role than conventional swing.

New Zealand found a place in their XI for Luke Ronchi, who made a century in their three-day warm-up match against Mumbai. He slotted in as a specialist middle-order batsman ahead of Henry Nicholls, who had scored 76 in his last Test innings against South Africa in Centurion.

As expected, New Zealand picked three spinners, with both pace-bowling slots going to left-armers in Trent Boult and Neil Wagner. They could expect a bit of help early on, with overcast conditions at the start of the Test match.

India: 1 M Vijay, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Umesh Yadav

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Luke Ronchi, 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Mark Craig, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult