IND vs NZ 2026 1st T20I match Live Score: Team India captain Shreyas Iyer called correctly at the toss on Thursday and elected to bowl first in the first T20I of five-match series against New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday.
“Obviously a quick turnaround, want to have fair idea about how the wicket will play, how much the bounce it’s going to offer, and based on that we took this decision,” Iyer said at the toss.
Shreyas Iyer’s side have endured a packed schedule before landing in New Zealand after a sharing a T20I series with West Indies 2-2 at home.
Mitchell Santner’s side will look to catch the Indians unaware in pace-friendly early summer conditions in New Zealand for the T20I series. Indians suffered in similar conditions in Ireland and England earlier this year losing T20I series with 2-0 and 4-0 margin to them respectively.
The visitors will bank on the experience of veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who last bowled in an international match in Napier back in 2022. Bhuvneshwar will be expected to share the new ball with Arshdeep Singh and Shreyas Iyer’s side can also call up Varun Chakravarthy, who has been deemed fit to play in the series.
But the Indian batters will need to back up the bowling attack in face of New Zealand pacers like Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith. Indians, though, will be buoyed by the fact that they hold a 19-11 win-loss record in T20I matches against New Zealand.
India vs New Zealand 2026 1st T20I match Playing 11
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson
India vs New Zealand 2026 1st T20I Match Live Score and Updates HERE