India will aim to take a lead in the three match T20I series vs New Zealand by winning the first match at Ranchi on Friday, January 27. India won the toss and asked Black Caps to bat first. All eyes will be on Shubman Gill, who will be looking to bring his great ODIs form into T20s. Making a comment on Shubman's T20 performances, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra said that he still have a lot to prove in this particular format. Gill has played 4 T20Is, scoring just 58 runs. His Strike-Rate is 131.82. In IPL, his strike rate goes down to 125.25 while scoring 1900 runs in 74 matches. The SR is something that he needs to improve on. 


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"If you look at Shubman Gill’s number in ODIs – there is no question about it, he should play but keeping the T20 numbers in mind and if we are just being very prudent about it – you ask yourself does he fit in that squad? Unfortunately, Shubman Gill has not done that well in this format. Interestingly enough in the last 11 T20Is Ishan Kishan has 36 as his highest total, so even he has not made a lot of runs. I don’t think Prithvi Shaw will be playing, I think Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan will open the innings," said Aakash on JioCInema’s new daily sports show 'Aakashvani'. 



Chopra also said that he would like to see Deepak Hooda and Hardik Pandya be flexible in the batting order. "At number 3, we might see Rahul Tripathi – he has shown good potential after his performance at Rajkot. At number 4 – Suryakumar Yadav. He wasn’t able to make a lot of runs in ODI, but I am confident that he will be his usual explosive self in the T20. After all, he is the number-one-ranked batter in the ICC rankings. After Suryakumar, we’ll see Deepak Hooda. We might see a little bit of flexibility in the batting order between the placement of Hooda and Hardik Pandya," said Chopra.