Due to the heavy rain on Friday, the first T20I match between New Zealand and India at Sky Stadium in Wellington was washed off without the toss being held.
Wellington’s weather forecast called for 90 to 100% rain during the game. Although it briefly stopped raining, it returned with a heavier rain storm than before, forcing both the visitor and host to play a game of football-volleyball indoors.
At 9:46 p.m local time, the overs duration cutoff for the game’s started, and a T20I match required a minimum of five overs from each side in that case. However, a downpour washed out that possibility as well.
Both India and New Zealand are looking forward to the second match of the series, set to be played at a sold-out Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui on Sunday. After this, the third and final match of the series will be played at McLean Park in Napier on Tuesday, followed by a three-match ODI series.
In the recently concluded T20 World Cup, India and New Zealand failed to win their semifinal games respectively. The losing semi-finalists from the Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia, are on the road to rebuild for the T20 World Cup 2024 as well as fine-tune their preparations for the 2023 ODI World Cup through this white-ball tour running from November 18-30.
For this New Zealand tour, Hardik Pandya is leading the Indian contingent, which is missing several of its usual stars, but the young guns will try to utilise any opportunity coming up on this tour, according to standby head coach VVS Laxman.
While the series is being played without Trent Boult and Martin Guptill for New Zealand, Indian skipper captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul are absent from the tour along with Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Mohammed Shami in T20Is.