Toss New Zealand opt to bowl vs Bangladesh
Litton Das did not recover to make the Bangladesh XI either, allowing Shamim Hossain to keep his place and Rony Talukdar to hold on to the gloves. New Zealand went with the same team for the third game in a row, with another chance for Finn Allen who has been struggling for runs as opener. Rachin Ravindra and Jacob Duffy remain the only two players from the hosts’ squad to not get a game all series.
Tanvir will the third spinner for Bangladesh, alongside legspinner Rishad Hossain and offspinner Mahedi Hasan. He has played only one international – a T20I against England in Mirpur in March 2023.
Even though there was sunshine at toss, thunderstorm alerts for the area after 1pm local could interrupt the game like the second T20I which was abandoned after 11 overs of cricket. The first T20I in Napier was won by Bangladesh. The team batting first has won every T20I at Mount Maunganui. This is the final men’s international of the 2023 calendar year between Full Member sides.
New Zealand XI: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (capt), Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Ben Sears.
Bangladesh XI: Rony Talukdar (wk), Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Shamim Hossain, Towhid Hridoy, Afif Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanvir Islam.