IND vs NZ: Ishan Kishan, who made his way back into India's T20I setup due to impactful performances in the domestic circuit, will play at the number three position in the line-up against New Zealand on January 21. Captain Suryakumar Yadav made it clear in the pre-match press conference that by virtue of being picked before Shreyas Iyer in the squad, Ishan will be preferred ahead of him.

Suryakumar also stated that Ishan is an automatic pick at number three in the absence of Tilak, who is ruled out of the first three games. Tilak's absence brought Iyer back to the national squad for the first three games.

The skipper also suggested that Iyer could be considered for the number five position.

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"Ishan will bat at number 3 because he is a part of our T20 World Cup team and he was picked in the squad first so it's our responsibility to give him a chance," he said in the pre-match press conference.

"He hasn't played for India for past one and half year and in the mean time consistently performed in domestic cricket," the Indian skipper did not leave any room for guess work.

"Since he (Ishan) has been picked for World T20, he deserves to play ahead (of Shreyas). Had it been a question of batting slots Nos 4 or 5, it would have been a different question altogether. Unfortunately, Tilak isn't there so Ishan is our best bet," he added.

The T20 World Cup starts February 7 and will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

When asked if he himself has any chance of batting at No.3 where he got a lot of success, the skipper indicated that he would like to be flexible.

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"I have batted at both positions for India. My stats at No. 4 are sightly better although they are good at No. 3 also. But then we are flexible with that," he said.

"We will see and if the situation demands that we have to send a right-hander (in case right hander Sanju Samson gets out), then, I will go in, otherwise Tilak (now injured) has been doing really well at number three."

Inputs from PTI