Kanpur, Sep 22: Opener KL Rahul played some exquisite cricket shots before departing at 32 as India came out to play the first Test of the 3-match rubber at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium on Thursday.

Rahul played some aggressive cricket and scored 32 off 39 balls (4X4s, 1X6) before being caught behind the stumps by BJ Watling off Mitchell Santner in the 11th over. Hosts India were at 42/1 when Rahul departed.

Earlier, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test of the three match series against New Zealand at Green Park stadium here on Thursday.

Playing their 500th Test match, India chose to bat on a cracked Green Park pitch that is expected to be good to bat on initially before becoming increasingly conducive to spin. They went in with six batsmen, a keeper, and just the four bowlers, as they had done in their last Test match against West Indies in Port-of-Spain.

Indian score was 105/1 with Murali Vijay’s 39 off 89 balls and Cheteshwar Pujara 34 off 58 balls at 31 overs before lunch break at 11.30am.

India has won 10 tests under Kohli’s captaincy.

Teams: New Zealand : Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson (captain), Ross Taylor, Luke Ronchi, BJ Watling (wicket keeper), Mitchell Santner, Mark Craig, Neil Wagner, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult

India: Murli Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami. --IANS