India vs New Zealand highlights, 1st Test Day 2: New Zealand 180/3 at stumps, lead by 134 runs in Bengaluru

0 0 0 0 0 0 - Experienced Tim Southee continues to probe India batters around the off stump channel. After the rain break, he starts off with a maiden -- his fourth in 5 overs -- to Yashasvi Jaiswal. William ORourke to continue from the other end for the Kiwis. IND 17/3 in 14 overs

So, after teh rain break play resumes as William ORourke wraps his incomplete over from before the break that had two ball remaining in it. Rishabh Pant drove one of them through cover-point for India's first boundary of the day. Tim Southee to continue from the other end for New Zealand.

As New Zealand players limber up and Pant, Jaiswal pad up once again, play is due to resume in five minutes time

Great news from Bengaluru. Rain has stopped completely. Groundstaff are peeling away the covers one-by-one and the umpires are out for one potential inspection. The players are ready to go out there once again

Sarfaraz Khan, coming in for the injured Shubman Gill, has been dismissed for a three-ball duck. India are in complete tatters here inside the first hour at 10/3!

Length delivery from Henry, outside off, Sarfaraz tried to force a boundary, plays it on the up, didn't get good contact and it has been gobbled by Conway at extra cover. The BlackCaps player jumps to his right, sticks out his hand, and the ball sticks to his outstretched palm

The last time Virat Kohli batted at No. 3 position was against West Indies in 2016. And his lack of match-practice shows as he falls for a nine-ball duck.

Outstanding bowling from ORourke coupled with excellent field placement. Short of length on off-stump, ORourke gets extra bounce and it nipped back in, Kohli looked to defend off his toes and it gets a thick inside edge before flying towards Phillips at leg gully. He dives forward and cups the ball safely

After Rohit, Jaiswal is struggling in the middle under this onslaught. An appeal for caught behind on Jaiswal after a scorcher from Henry. There was a little sound and turns out it was the trouser - that's the margin we're dealing with.

Next ball, Jaiswal defends, not the most comfortable manner, though, and the ball just about stays away from the stumps

Rohit Sharma was always looking iffy in the middle and his testy period ends by being bowled by Southee. He's been done in by the seam. The India skipper tried to charge to the length delivery and ends up missing it completely.

Virat Kohli walks in next

Under the cloudy conditions, Matt Henry and Tim Southee are making the most of the red cherry as it swings about. Some absolute cracking deliveries so far and Jaiswal, Rohit are just about braving it out. Not the easiest time to bat in at the moment

Matt Henry celebrates. He's convinced he's got Rohit Sharma leg before. To the naked eye it looked to be a good shout. Umpire says not out. New Zealand review. It was pitching in line, hitting the top of off stump but Rohit has been saved by the umpire's call

First runs of the contest come from Rohit Sharma's bat. Matt Henry the seam-bowling partner for Southee. Rohit with a little go at it, slightly uncertain, but it goes past gully and the India openers taker a single

After a delay in getting the lights on, Southee bowls to Jaiswal and the left-hander plays it safely and confidently. The right-arm seamer follows that up with four more deliveries outside off and then one down the centre which Jaiswal defends nicely. Maiden over to get the match underway

In a social media post, BCCI shares the nature of Shubman Gill's injury by writing, "Update: Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness."

India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand XI: Tom Latham(c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell(w), Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, William ORourke

Rohit Sharma at the toss: "[The pitch has] been under the covers for a couple of days and we do understand it will be sticky to start with. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to put runs on the board. Look, it's a tricky one because you lose the entire day and have four days to play. A lot can happen over the four days as well and you want to get the result as much as possible. The last few Tests we played, we played well and we can get confidence from that and the table looks brilliant"

Tom Latham at the toss: "We would have had a bat as well and the wicket has been under covers for three days now. I guess being Test-match hardened is really good. We have managed to refresh [ourselves at home after the SL tour] and good to go now. [The prep] hasn't been great and haven't had a lot of time outdoors, leaning back on the time in Sri Lanka. Going three seamers, with Ajaz and two spin allrounders. Those guys balance the side nicely."

India with team changes: Sarfaraz Khan comes in for injured Shubman Gill and spinner Kuldeep Yadav for seamer Akash Deep

India captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss in Bengaluru and decided to bat against New Zealand

At the ground, India head coach Gautam Gambhir, seamer Jasprit Bumrah and captain Rohit Sharma just had a look at the pitch and then stepped to the side for a long discussion. Mind, neither camps could get a look at the surface on the eve of the Test. The Indian camp did congregate after yesterday's play

So, if we go by that latest photo from Dinesh Karthik, who is at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, we look good to get a start on time. Although, it's best to not get hopes up, like we did on the afternoon yesterday, and let things play out until then. Who knows with Bengaluru's weather...

Morning session: 9:15 am to 11:30 am
Afternoon session: 12:10 pm to 2:25 pm
Evening session: 2:45 pm to 4:45 pm

Ben Duckett's century held England's first innings together in response to Pakistan's 366 all out on day two of the second Test in Multan; and after the end of day's play, the England opener shared his thoughts on his learning curve while batting against Ravichandran Ashwin on the Indian pitches.

Anil Kumble wants this India batsman to open in Australia if Rohit Sharma's is unavailable. Rohit is likely to miss the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Perth because of personal reasons.

The good part about the facilities at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is that its modern drainage system can get the ground ready for play with 30 minutes after any amount of rain. But we hope there is as few weather interruptions as possible to allow a contest between the bat and the ball.

With more rain predicted in the coming days, the outlook for Day 2 is less than optimistic.

AccuWeather reports a temperature of around 27°C, with a 'real feel' of 31°C.

There is a significant 40 percent chance of rain, coupled with a 24 percent probability of thunderstorms later in the day, which could further complicate play.

The past few days in the Karnataka capital has such such rainy weather that it created flood-like situation in some parts of the city. The result of it at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium was that even the toss could not take place.

Rain didn't relent enough to allow the state-of-the-art SubAir drainage system and the ground staff to come into play to make the playing arena fit for the game to begin. The forecast for October 17 isn't very promising either, which keeps everybody's fingers crossed.

Welcome back and thank you for joining us at Timesofindia.com once again on a Thursday that we hope will see some cricket action from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where the opening day of the first Test between India and New Zealand got washed out due to torrential rain.