Shreyas Iyer opts to bowl again as India close on the series in Wellington

Shreyas Iyer won the toss for a third straight match and put New Zealand in at Sky Stadium, with India one win from the T20I series

India arrived in Wellington 2-0 up in the five-match series and stuck to the pattern that has carried them through it, choosing to bowl first and chase again in the third T20I.

"We are going to bowl," Iyer said at the toss. "The dimensions and conditions are different, so the quicker we adapt the better for us."

A win on Tuesday would give India an unassailable 3-0 lead with two matches still to play. New Zealand, beaten twice in Christchurch, have to win to keep the series alive.

Iyer sticks to the chase

This was Iyer's third toss of the series and his third decision to field, a run that reflects how comfortably India have batted second so far.

They ran down 226 in the series opener at Hagley Oval, the highest total India have chased to beat New Zealand, and got home again in the second match after the pursuit had stalled.

Tilak Varma was the difference that night, finishing unbeaten on 51 from 26 balls to settle a chase that had drifted in the middle overs.

Fielding first also puts the weaker half of India's cricket under the lights before the dew arrives. Every India bowler went for 40 or more in the opener, and both wins have owed far more to the batting than to anything the attack contained.

India keep faith with Sooryavanshi

India named an unchanged side. Ishan Kishan misses a second successive match with a low-grade right adductor strain picked up earlier in the tour.

That keeps Vaibhav Sooryavanshi at No. 3, the position the 15-year-old inherited in Christchurch and has yet to make his own.

Sanju Samson keeps wicket and opens with Abhishek Sharma, with Iyer at four and Tilak Varma at five.

Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav carry the bowling alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy. Bhuvneshwar, back in international cricket on this tour, takes the new ball with Arshdeep.

New Zealand rejig a depleted attack

Matt Henry is unavailable for the rest of the series and Lockie Ferguson sits out this match, stripping New Zealand of both their senior quicks in the same week.

Kyle Jamieson comes into the side in their place, and Blair Tickner has been added to the squad for the closing matches of the tour.

The hosts have not been short of runs. They have posted a competitive total in each of the first two matches and failed to defend either, which is why Mitchell Santner's bowling options matter more than his batting order here.

Phillips reaches a hundred caps

Glenn Phillips becomes the eighth New Zealand player to appear in 100 T20Is, a milestone reached in the middle of his best run of the year.

Phillips has been the most productive batter on either side in this series, and New Zealand's recovery from 2-0 down rests largely on how long he stays in.

He reaches the mark in a side missing much of its first-choice attack, which leaves the batting to set targets large enough to survive India's chasing.

The wind is the other opponent

Wellington's wind is the variable Christchurch did not offer, and it routinely dictates which end the quicker bowlers use and how a captain sets a field.

India's own account of their preparation acknowledged as much, the BCCI posting "Welcome to windy Wellington" from the squad's session at the ground.

Rain was forecast for the morning but was expected to clear well before the start, leaving a full 20 overs a side.

An India win settles the series with two matches left; a New Zealand win keeps it open.

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