Live Cricket Score of India vs New Zealand, 1st Test, Day 1 at Kanpur. India Won the Toss elected to bat.

Toss

The Green Park crowd make themselves heard... Virat Kohli has won the toss and opted to bat first. As he'd spoken on the eve, he's decided to play just four bowlers - two quicks and two spinners. New Zealand have three spinners in their line-up, confirms Kane Williamson.

Pre-series thoughts

As expected, spin is on the mind in both the camps ahead of the first game in what will be a dry surface, devoid of anything for the faster bowlers. For the visiting skipper Kane Williamson, the challenge is not so much about packing his line-up with spinners as it is about being able to managing them well. The 26-year-old is aware of the fact that just possessing tweakers will not produce results in the sub-continent. 

But India has been a happy hunting ground for Williamson. He scored a century on debut and thwarted the odds and expectations when he led his side admirably in the T20 WC earlier this year, despite a Brendon McCullum-shaped hole in the young team. 

What makes Virat Kohli such a fine modern-day cricketer is not just his ability to adjust his game according to the situation, but also the amount of maturity he's rapidly gained since arriving as a brash and abrasive kid on the block. His team has been at the centre of all the positive cricket that India have played in the last year or so, but it'd be wrong to assume his moves are merely instinctive. What we see is a man with a lot of emotions to portray but there's enough evidence to suggest that he's also a keen observer and one not shy to amend his ways as per requirements. Here's what he had to say on the eve of the Test. 

"Well, we spoke about solidifying the batting a little bit more. Especially on (spinning) wickets, because all the teams have quality spinners these days and you don't want to leave a window for the opposition teams to capitalise, especially quality sides like New Zealand, England and Australia who we are going to play."

"So we have to make sure all bases are covered. Some conditions we might not need the fifth bowler. So we have to be smart about the combination that we play. Plus, it's basically our thinking to solidify our batting a little bit more and see which four bowlers can come into play."

Here's a man not just looking to winning everything he comes up against, but also one capable of making pragmatic decisions. Quite a combination, that.