🏏New Zealand vs India : 1st T20I: VCA Stadium, Nagpur on 21/01/26🏏 - Page 2

Suryakumar Yadav Aims To Return To Form!!

Suryakumar Yadav has had a pretty poor 2025, scoring just 219 runs without a single fifty and a strike rate of just 123. The ongoing series if the perfect opportunity forthe India captain to return to form ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026.

Head-To-Head Records!!

India and New Zealand have faced each other 25 times in T20Is. The Men in Blue have triumphed on 14 occasions while the Kiwis have won 10 encounters.

Shreyas Iyer's T20 World Cup 2026 Audition

There is a big chance that Tilak Varma might not play the T20 World Cup 2026 if he does not recover in time. Hence, if Shreyas Iyer gets some runs under his belt in the T20I series vs NZ, he will definitely make his way into the squad for next month's mega tournament.

Sanju Samson To Open!!

Sanju Samson has been in and out of the playing XI ever since Shubman Gill entered the T20I setup since the Asia Cup 2025. With no Gill, it looks like Samson will be back into the playing XI as the opener.

17:45 Local Time, 12:15 GMT: Test series, done! ODI series, done! T20I series? New Zealand are here to challenge India in the shortest format now. They have this habit of being silent-killers. On paper, they may not look really strong but even before you realise they would have outthought you with cricket smarts and play the final. But taking on this Indian side in this format at home won't be easy. Let's get there in a bit but we are in Nagpur today, a venue which hasn't staged a T20I in the last six years, barring the lone rain-curtailed game in 2022. Looking at the venue numbers, batting first has been favourable as 9 of the 12 games were won by the team setting targets. Now how seriously you take that data is upto you because a 6-year is literally an era in T20s. The game itself would have evolved and so would the teams. And this is one venue Mitch Santner would be fond of. It is here that he rolled over India in a low-scorer to record his career best figures of 4/11 during the T20 World Cup.

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All the best to both the teams! May the best team win!

Both teams couldn't have asked for a better prep leading up to next month's World Cup. India would love to play a side like New Zealand as they find a way to motor along irrespective of where you put them. And the Blackcaps will want this tough challenge of playing India in conditions where the World Cup is going to be staged. But Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson - four of their players who are in the World Cup squad are not part of this series. India are without TIlak Varma and Washington Sundar, both out due to injuries.

India:

- Abhishek-Sanju, two aggressive openers - 25.38 average, 167.5 SR

- Ishan Kishan at No. 3 in Tilak's absence. T20 record in 2025: 45.84 average, three 50s, three 100s

- SKY last scored a T20I fifty in Oct 2024, but the Indian captain is never shy of confidence

- India squeeze through the middle-overs - Varun Chakaravarthy has taken 24 wickets in 9 games at home last year

- India took close to 6/60 in overs 7-15 when bowling second in the last two series

- Since the 2025 Asia Cup, India have lost only once in 6 games while defending targets

- Varun, Bumrah, Arshdeep squeeze at the death

- In overs 16-20, India have the best strike-rate (8.9) and economy rate (8.45) in this format in world cricket since 2025

New Zealand:

- Conway will have to be wary of Arshdeep - 3 dismissals in 11 balls

- Mitchell the run machine v India will be to counter Bumrah - 2 dismissals in 8 balls

- If the pitch aids turn Santner could trouble India - dismissed SKY thrice and Sanju twice

- Duffy the key wicket-taker

Pitch report - Deep Dasgupta and Simon Doull: It's the start of the T20I series, first of the five games being played at a venue which has hosted the most number of T20Is in India. We are right at the centre of the playing area, 66 metres on either side, straight down it's 76 metres. The square was relayed in 2024 and this is the first T20I since. Looking at the numbers from the past, pretty low-scoring, not an easy surface to bat on. First and foremost, I think they've done a great job relaying the surface. The grass covering all around the block is fantastic. What he's done with this particular pitch, it's about 3 to 4 mils we were just both getting to the head curator here. He left about 3 to 4 mils but there's a lot of cracks in and around it. And when I went down on it earlier, it's just a little bit soft underneath still, I think. I think it'll be quite low and quite slow. I don't think it'll be a really high-scoring affair. There are runs around with a good outfield and it'll come onto the bat just medium to slow pace, I think so. I don't think it's going to be easy from a seamer's point of view, just about nice straight lines and length. But the last time New Zealand were here, it actually turned quite a bit. Yes. I'm not going to see too much turn tonight. Maybe early while it's a bit damp, I think. It's not as firm as we usually see in T20I pitches. All these cracks are kind of wide. They're not thin those cracks. So with wider cracks, every time the ball lands on those cracks, chances are it'll do a little bit and the edges might start breaking. So it might be a high-scoring pitch like 220 to 230.

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Robinson, Devon Conway(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner(c), Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy

India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

Suryakumar Yadav: We were looking to bowl first because we felt there was dew around 8.30 during our practice. But we don't mind putting runs on the board and we have done well batting first. Shreyas, Harshit, Bishnoi and Kuldeep are the ones who are missing out.

Mitchell Santner: We are going to bowl first. Looks like a pretty good wicket and looks pretty high-scoring. Last week was pretty special. Every team knows how hard it is to come to India and won but this is a fresh series and they are a tough team in home conditions. Great start for us in terms of prep for the World Cup. Three seamers. Clarke makes his debut, Jamieson and Duffy are playing as well.

New Zealand have won the toss and have opted to field

So New Zealand have read this differently from the pitch report. Santner said they felt this could be a high-scoring surface. Just to reiterate again, the surface here was relaid in 2024 so can't really go by old data. If there's any early tackiness and if there's any assistance for spin, this contest could get really spicy as NZ spinners could pose a serious challenge to India's batters and later on it will come down to Varun, Axar bowling with the dew if it sets in.

Abhishek 6 💙.

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