Has India hit the panic button? Rohit Sharma announces three big changes for 2nd Test against New Zealand | Cricket News

NEW DELHI: For the crucial second Test in MCA Stadium In Pune, India made significant changes to their playing XI and took Akash DeepWashington Sundar and Shubman Gill. Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav missed out. New Zealand, who had claimed an eight-wicket win in the series opener in Bengaluru, won the toss and elected to bat first.
At the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma spoke about the positive aspects of the previous game and stressed the importance of the first session.
“I would have fought too. When you play a test game like that, the first session didn't go as we expected. But we fought well in the second inning. We'll take a lot of positives from this and see how we can turn things around.” We always want to find a way to get back into the friendly when we're behind. Yes, we understand how important the first 10 overs are, KL and Kuldeep are out, Akash Deep, Washington and Gill are coming in,” Rohit explained.

New Zealand captain Tom Latham decided to bat first, citing the conditions on the pitch in Pune. The visitors made one change with Mitchell Santner replacing the injured Matt Henry, who was instrumental in their Bengaluru win with eight wickets.
“We will have a bat. The interface is a little different than last week. Not much grass. Might create a bit of spin as we expect when we come to these parts of the world. “Obviously a really proud moment. “For this group, we celebrated that, but our focus here is just getting used to this surface,” Latham said.
Ending XIs:

India will look to bounce back from the defeat in Bengaluru while New Zealand will aim to seal the series with another strong performance.