Chennai, Feb 17 (IANS) Canada won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in their Group D match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.

The Kiwis made two changes to their playing XI from the previous game, with regular skipper Mitchell Santner unwell and rested, and Lockie Ferguson having left the side for the birth of his first child.

Winning the toss, Canada skipper Dilpreet Bajwa said, “It looks like a good surface to start on, and later in the game there might be some assistance for the spinners. So it’s better to put runs on the board and defend a target. We’ve had a couple of night games recently, so a day game is a nice change. I think it suits us, especially with our spinners – the conditions should help them later on. One change- Kaleem Sana is out due to injury, and Shivam Sharma comes in.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s stand-in captain Michael Bracewell said, “Mitch (Santner) not feeling too great today, so hopefully he’ll be good to go in 24 hours. Firstly, we’re really excited for Lockie with the birth of his first baby — that’s special news — and he’ll be back soon. In terms of the team, Kyle Jamieson comes in for him, so it’s a like-for-like replacement, which is good for us. Cole (McConchie) comes in for Santner as well, so again it’s a very similar role. He’ll be excited to get the opportunity. It brings different challenges.

“A number of us have played quite a few games here in Chennai over the last few years, so we understand the conditions. We’ll assess the surface quickly and adapt as the game unfolds.”

Playing XIs:

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell (c), Cole McConchie, James Neesham, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy

Canada: Dilpreet Bajwa (c), Yuvraj Samra, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva (w), Harsh Thaker, Saad Bin Zafar, Jaskaran Singh, Dilon Heyliger, Shivam Sharma, Ansh Patel

–IANS

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