New Zealand tour of India 2026 | 1st T20I | Preview and Predictions

The visitors, New Zealand, picked up a historic ODI series win in India after bouncing back for a 2-1 win in the ODI series and now the Kiwis will look to seal the white-ball series as a whole as both teams have their final assignments before the T20 World Cup 2026 next month.

Ahead of the first T20I between India and New Zealand, here’s our match preview and predictions. 

New Zealand tour of India 2026 | 1st T20I | 19:00 IST, January 21, 2026

The hosts might have lost the ODI series heading into the T20I games but India will be high on confidence as its a completely new setup for the T20Is with an almost completely different squad. Suryakumar Yadav will be returning to lead the hosts and Yadav has been in horrific form with the bat and will hope to get amongst the runs heading into the World Cup. India will also look to finalise the squad and fine tune all the chinks in their armour with the batting lineup more of less settled. With Sanju Samson being given the opening spot with Abhishek Sharma, India have an explosive top order. Yadav himself slots in at three with Tilak Varma as no.4 but with Varma having undergone a surgery recently, India have brought in Shreyas Iyer. It remains to be seen whether Iyer starts or if Varma is fit for the entire series. The middle and lower order have more firepower with the likes of Hardik Panyda, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh and Axar Patel with Pandya being crucial for India’s setup.

The bowling lineup will be boosted with the return of Jasprit Bumrah while Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh will be the back up seamers with Bumrah. The spinners will be led by Kuldeep Yadav and Yadav who had a poor ODI series will look to bounce back in the shortest format. Varun Charkravarthy also returns to the set up and will be the key spinner with Ravi Bishnoi being brought in as the cover up for Washington Sundar, another player out with injury. 

New Zealand also will see a nearly new squad for the T20Is with a total of 11 new players coming in for the T20I series. Their white-ball captain Mitchell Santner returns as does a host of experienced players such as James Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duff and Matt Henry amongst others. The batting lineup of Devon Conway, Tim Robinson, Daryl Mitchell, Chapman and Glenn Philips have shown that they are more than comfortable in the subcontinent conditions with Conway, Chapman, Mitchell and Philips having plenty of experience in Indian conditions. The visitors have a host of all-rounders meaning that they can be flexible in their lineup and it will allow captain Santner to select horses for courses. 

The Nagpur strip has been a tricky one for batting in recent times in white-ball cricket with the slower bowlers finding a lot of purchase from it and after a high-scoring ODI series, we could be in for a relatively low scoring series. The hosts might have struggled in the ODI series but with the likes of Bumrah, Pandya and Chakravarthy returning to the setup, it’s advantage India as we have Suryakumar Yadav’s boys as the favourites to start the five-match T20I series with a win.

Fantasy XI: Abhishek Sharma (c), Devon Conway (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Santner, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy (vc), Jasprit Bumrah, Matt Henry

Venue: Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur

Winners Prediction: India