Kane Williamson (22*) and Brendon McCullum (5*) took New Zealand to 54/3 in 24 overs at lunch.
The lanky pacer struck in his first over of the innings to remove Rutherford and justified his inclusion to an extent after a disaster show in the recently concluded ODI series. Rutherford played away from the body, got a thick edge and was caught by Ajinkya Rahane at gully.
India's most experienced pacer Zaheer gave New Zealand second blow in the form of Fulton, who caught plumb in front of the wicket.
Ishant struck again to dismiss man-in-form Ross Taylor and leave New Zealand stuttering at 30/3 in 17.1 overs.
Earlier, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to field against New Zealand.
The teams were confronted with cool and overcast conditions with the toss delayed by 15 minutes. Further rain showers are expected later in the day.
Thoroughly embarrassed in the ODI series, India would aim for a turnaround in fortunes.
The Indians were blanked out 0-4 in the five-game ODI series resulting in the team losing its number one status in the ICC rankings.
The visitors thereafter played a two-day warm-up game ahead of the Tests which ended in a draw and gave them mixed results as far as individual form of the players was concerned.
New Zealand know they have double trouble in store for them, considering what this pairing achieved in South Africa against the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, etc.
Teams:
India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma
New Zealand: Peter Fulton, Hamish Rutherford, Kane Williamson, Toss Taylor, Brendon McCullum (capt), Corey Anderson, BJ Watling (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult
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