Bumrah absence explained as New Zealand lose key player for third Test

India v New Zealand, Scorecard

New Zealand’s Santner, who was the Player of the Match for his side in their win in Pune with his career-best 13/157, was ruled out due to a side strain, while India’s key pacer Bumrah missed out due to a viral fever.

Both these developments were confirmed at the toss, which was won by New Zealand who elected to bat first.

At the toss, skipper Rohit Sharma informed about Bumrah’s unavailability, “Bumrah is not well, so (Mohammed) Siraj replaces him.”

He added that while qualifying for the World Test Championship Final was on the back of their minds, India’s focus was with the present game against New Zealand.

Latham believed the surface was reasonably good, and wanted to put pressure on India by getting runs on the board.

New Zealand go into the final Test having secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. With their win in the first two games, the Kiwis secured their first-ever Test series victory in India.

At present, India are on the top of the WTC Standings, but will need to deliver in the upcoming games to maintain their ascendancy, whereas New Zealand would look to gain further advantage with a win in Mumbai.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel, Will O'Rourke