Ishan Kishan, who missed the second T20I against New Zealand due to injury, is also unavailable for the third contest scheduled to be played on Tuesday (October 27). The southpaw hasn’t recovered from a groin strain, and he will be sitting out of another game. According to bowling coach Morne Morkel, Kishan came to the ground for training purposes, but the team management doesn’t want to take a risk with the player, considering the team’s current track record to players’ fitness issues.

The Men in Blue are leading the five-match series 2-0, having won two consecutive matches by a margin of 4 wickets. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was added to the playing XI in the second game, but the southpaw managed just 2 runs off 8 balls at the No. 3 slot.

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shreyas Iyer opened with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma despite the presence of Sooryavanshi.

They were slammed by former cricketers for demoting the young batter in the batting order, with many highlighting the fact that Vaibhav is an opener and he has never batted at No. 3.  On the other hand, Samson has the experience of batting at different batting slots, and he should have taken Kishan’s place in the batting department.

Sooryavanshi is likely to play the upcoming game, and it would be interesting to see where he bats after Samson and Abhishek were found wanting in the second outing.

For the visitors, another win would secure the bilateral assignment, giving them two matches to experiment with the combination.