AHMEDABAD: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against New Zealand at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera here today.
India brought fit-again batsmen V V S Laxman and Gautam Gambhir back into the team after they missed the second and final Test against Australia at Bangalore last month.
However, Ishant Sharma, who also was absent for the previous Test, was left out and S Sreesanth retained in his place.
New Zealand capped 20-year-old batsman Kane Williamson and 23-year-old fast bowler Hamish Bennett while leaving out experienced batsman Martin Guptill.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, and S Sreesanth.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Capt), Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Kane Williamson, Chris Martin, Tim McIntosh, Jeetan Patel, Bradley John Watling and Hamish Bennett.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Steve Davis (Australia).
Third umpire: Shavir Tarapore (India)
Fourth umpire: Sameer Bandekar (India).
Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)(PTI)
