There was plenty of noise and atmosphere in Wellington for India's tour opener - sadly it was restricted to chanting, drumbeats and Mexican waves in the stands.

Out in the centre, pitch covers and rain dominated as focus shifts to Mount Maunganui today with the series between the two T20 World Cup beaten semifinalists reduced to two matches.

New Zealand Cricket confirmed Bay Oval was a sellout on Friday, but patrons will cast anxious glances to the skies with the forecast for Sunday evening featuring showers.

If rain has the final say again, it's all on to Napier on Tuesday for a one-off T20 before the three ODIs. Mercifully, Tuesday's forecast in Napier is for sunny skies and a maximum of 29C.

The rain prevailed in Wellington with T20I 1 washed out. The teams are looking forward to T20I at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui on Sunday. Photo: Blackcaps.

Team news

At least with a washout there are no new injury concerns for either side, unless Ish Sodhi and some members of the Indian side picked up any ailments from a game of football/volleyball under the Sky Stadium stands as the rain fell.

Most interest will surround the blazing bats of India's Suryakumar Yadav and New Zealand's Glenn Phillips – the standouts for their respective countries at the T20 World Cup.

Yadav is the world's top-ranked T20I batter and leading runscorer in 2022, with 1040 at an average of 43 and hefty strike rate of 186. Phillips is ranked eighth, also his place on the year's runscoring list with 650 at 46 and a strike rate of 155. Both had the two highest strike rates of the top-10 runscorers at the T20 World Cup, too (Yadav 239 runs, SR 190, and Phillips 201 runs, SR 158).

Key stats

The only time the sides met in a Bay Oval T20 in February 2020, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul (both absent for this tour) led India to 163-3 and a seven-run victory, with Jasprit Bumrah (also absent this time) snaring 3-12. That sealed a 5-0 clean sweep for the touring side in that T20 series.

In New Zealand, the Black Caps have won four and India won six of their 10 T20 internationals - two of those in Super Overs on that 2020 tour.

Weather forecast (via MetService) Showers, heavy at times. Possible thunderstorms. Northerlies. Max 21C
TAB odds Black Caps $1.73, India $2.02

Squads

Black Caps: Kane Williamson (captain), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner.

India: Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.

Second T20 international: Black Caps v India.

Where: Bay Oval, Tauranga.

When: Sunday, November 20, 7.30pm.

Coverage: Live on Spark Sport, live updates on Stuff

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