India vs New Zealand, 2nd T20 Live: Hardik Pandya-led India will play New Zealand in a ‘must-win’ second T20I of the three-match T20I series at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, Sunday.

India vs New Zealand 2nd T20I will be a ‘do or die’ match for Team India. In the first match of the series, the Indian team was defeated by New Zealand by 21 runs. The Men in Blue need to win tonight’s match in Lucknow to level the series 1-1.

New Zealand is yet to win a T20 International series on Indian soil for the last 10 years. They won a T20 series in India in the year 2012. Back then, New Zealand defeated India 1-0 in the two-match T20 series. Today, after 10 years, they have a chance to win a T20 series against India in India, once again.

So far, five T20 International matches have been played at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow where every time the team batting first has won. Also, all these victories have been somewhat one-sided. It is very much obvious that the team batting first on this wicket has been getting more help. However, in the second innings at night, dew might trouble the bowlers.

While the Men in Blue were convincing in the three-match ODI series which they won 3-0, the T20I side will feature some more youngsters with the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul once again missing from the shortest format of the game.

Team India has played two T20 International matches in Lucknow and won both of these. Both times, India won the toss, batted first and scored 190+ total. India has defeated Sri Lanka and West Indies here.

Squads:

India: Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw

New Zealand: Devon Conway (wk), Mitchell Santner (c), Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy, Michael Rippon, Dane Cleaver, Henry Shipley, Ben Lister