After the new captain, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wet surface at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, India were off to a brilliant start with Bhuvneshwar Kumar finding prodigious swing to castle the man in form Daryl Mitchell.
However, their celebration was short-lived as the new addition to the New Zealand side, Mark Chapman hit a fighting and fluent fifty to put the Blackcaps in the game. After losing the wicket in the first over, Chapman and Martin Guptill stitched a controlled partnership of 95 runs.
He reached his fifty in T20 internationals in 45 balls and it was his first such milestone for New Zealand. He has one half-century in T20 cricket while playing for Singapore.
India are playing their first game under the new leadership group of Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid and KL Rahul while the Blackcaps are without their full-time captain Kane Williamson. They are also without Devon Conway.
India handed Venkatesh Iyer T20 international debut and he is likely to bat in the lower middle order and he was also expected to roll his arm overs for some overs with the ball. However, the skipper Rohit Sharma did not offer him that opportunity till the 12th over of the game.