Rohit Sharma at toss revealed that Sarfaraz Khan was playing in the series opener in place of an unwell Shubman Gill. Moments later the BCCI revealed that the right-hand batter was left out due to a neck stiffness. "Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness," BCCI said in their statement. The 25-year-old had to sit out due to a similar reason in the second T20I against Sri Lanka in July. Sanju Samson walked in his place on that instance and was dismissed for a duck. "Gill misses out as he woke up with a neck spasm, (Sanju) Samson comes in," India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav had said. Shubman Gill performed decently in the preceding Test series against Bangladesh. After getting dismissed for a duck in the first innings of the first Test in Chennai, Gill bounced back with a hundred in the second innings. He scored 39 and 6 runs in the two innings of the second Test in Kanpur. The Punjab batter has been India's designated number three batter ever since the ouster of Cheteshwar Pujara. KL Rahul or Virat Kohli are expected to bat at three in his absence. Day 1 of the first Test was washed off due to rain. India opted to bat first after winning the toss on Day 2. India Playing 11 vs New Zealand 1st Test: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj