Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who returned to the Indian playing 11 after gap of nearly four years in 5th T20I match vs West Indies in Bengaluru last week, is expected to retain his place and finally get a chance to bowl in international cricket. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer was their leading wicket-taker in IPL 2026 campaign with 28 wickets in 17 matches.
“Bhuvi brings a lot of experience to the team. And we were lacking that, especially after the IPL. We had a lot of new bowlers,” Indian captain Shreyas Iyer said at the pre-match press conference in Christchurch on Wednesday.
“But in T20, if you see his career graph, he has won the IPL in each of the last two years. So, he has a very good idea of how to dominate this format,” Iyer added.
But Bhuvneshwar is not going to be the only change in the playing 11. Indians are expected to go in with three pacers but the availability of ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy will provide an additional dilemma for Iyer.
The Kolkata Knight Riders off-spinner missed the T20I series against West Indies and before that the Asian Games 2026 campaign due to a side strain suffered in series against Afghanistan. But even if Chakravarthy is available, Indians are like to pick Prince Yadav ahead of him considering the pace friendly conditions at the Hagley Oval.
Axar Patel will be the sole spinner in the Playing 11 in that case with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube providing additional pace bowling options for the visiting side. That means once again Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to warm the bench with Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson expected to retain their opening positions.
For Mitchell Santner’s New Zealand, on the other hand, Mark Chapman’s absence due to injury means they will have three spinners in their line-up including their skipper. Both Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell are expected to play together given their batting prowess.
With Rachin Ravindra out injured, former Chennai Super Kings opener Devon Conway is expected to bat at the No. 3 position after the explosive duo of Finn Allen and Tim Seifert. Lockie Ferguson will be leading the pace attack with Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith.
India vs New Zealand 2026 1st T20I match Predicted 11
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav/ Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson