India v New Zealand 2nd Test – India Predicted XI

Team India will take on New Zealand in the second Test of the series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata tomorrow. Both the teams will be forced to make changes in the XI. While opener KL Rahul has been ruled out and Team India have two prospective replacements it is still a point of speculation whether the Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson who was reportedly down with a bug will be fit for the Test or not.

On the eve of the game Virat Kohli said, “No comments on wicket. We have all bases covered as team concerned. It looks a normal wicket. Surface is pretty nice. It always has a grass cover and should be a good wicket to bat on.” It was Tom Latham who walked out from the Kiwi side to address the media and said, “I don’t think we were too far away in the first Test. If we were able to do that with bat and ball we will have a good chance.”

Here we take a look at the predicted Indian XI for the Kolkata Test.

Murali Vijay:

A certain name in the XI, Murali Vijay found his game back in the first Test. He had scored only 7 runs in the tour of West Indies in the only innings that he batted and there were concerns over his form. Vijay has been the key for Indian batting’s success in the last couple of years as he has taken over the responsibility of seeing through the initial charge of the opposition bowlers and to give a solid reply.

He respects when it’s due and once he has his eyes set, goes after the bowlers. Vijay was patient for the first part of both the innings in the first Test and once the New Zealand skipper brought in the spinners he relished this opportunity and went after them. He stroked 65 and 76 in respective innings at Kanpur and to what we know of the Tamil Nadu batsman he will not be satisfied with those scores and would want to play a bigger knock at Kolkata.