<p>India won the toss and elected to bowl first in the opening Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Auckland Friday to start their five-match series in a World Cup year.</p>.<p>Captain Virat Kohli said the fading light in the first innings was key to making New Zealand bat at Eden Park with its short boundaries.</p>.<p>"With the light going it's a bit hard to pick the ball up initially," he said.</p>.<p>"We're going to look to get good strikes with the new ball and get into the game."</p>.<p>India are without Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar while New Zealand are without pace bowlers Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry.</p>.<p>Hamish Bennett, once a regular face in the New Zealand one-day international side has been recalled to the Black Caps for his maiden Twenty20 and will share the pace duties with Tim Southee.</p>.<p>New Zealand's morale has taken a knock following their recent 3-0 Test thrashing by Australia although they can draw confidence from having beaten India 2-1 in a Twenty20 series a year ago.</p>.<p>They last met in the ODI World Cup semi-finals last year with New Zealand again coming out on top.</p>.<p>India have rarely enjoyed success against New Zealand in cricket's shortest form although they have their tails up after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 early this month followed by a 2-1 win against Australia in ODIs.</p>.<p>New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Tim Seifert, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner, Hamish Bennett.</p>.<p>India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.</p>.<p>Umpires: Chris Brown (NZL), Shaun Haig (NZL)</p>.<p>TV Umpire: Ashley Mehrotra (NZL)</p>
<p>India won the toss and elected to bowl first in the opening Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Auckland Friday to start their five-match series in a World Cup year.</p>.<p>Captain Virat Kohli said the fading light in the first innings was key to making New Zealand bat at Eden Park with its short boundaries.</p>.<p>"With the light going it's a bit hard to pick the ball up initially," he said.</p>.<p>"We're going to look to get good strikes with the new ball and get into the game."</p>.<p>India are without Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar while New Zealand are without pace bowlers Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry.</p>.<p>Hamish Bennett, once a regular face in the New Zealand one-day international side has been recalled to the Black Caps for his maiden Twenty20 and will share the pace duties with Tim Southee.</p>.<p>New Zealand's morale has taken a knock following their recent 3-0 Test thrashing by Australia although they can draw confidence from having beaten India 2-1 in a Twenty20 series a year ago.</p>.<p>They last met in the ODI World Cup semi-finals last year with New Zealand again coming out on top.</p>.<p>India have rarely enjoyed success against New Zealand in cricket's shortest form although they have their tails up after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 early this month followed by a 2-1 win against Australia in ODIs.</p>.<p>New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Tim Seifert, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner, Hamish Bennett.</p>.<p>India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.</p>.<p>Umpires: Chris Brown (NZL), Shaun Haig (NZL)</p>.<p>TV Umpire: Ashley Mehrotra (NZL)</p>