India will square off against New Zealand in the 1st T20I of the New Zealand tour of India, 2026 scheduled to be played on Wednesday, 21st January at 7:00 PM IST. The match will take place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Check out the best Dream11 team tips, player stats, pitch report, top fantasy picks and dream11 prediction team for today’s IND vs NZ clash.
Match Preview
India will be looking to start afresh after losing the ODI series, with several new faces included in the squad. They have enjoyed a strong run in this format, remaining unbeaten in their last five series, and will be keen to maintain that record.
Meanwhile, New Zealand will take confidence from an impressive series win earlier on this tour. They also come into this contest on the back of a series victory against West Indies, although prior to that they had suffered back-to-back T20 series defeats against England and Australia.
The two sides have met 25 times in this format, with India holding the edge with 14 wins, while New Zealand have won 10 matches and one game ended without a result.
Hardik Pandya has been a key figure for India in this format, scoring 2,002 runs and taking 101 wickets, which makes him the top choice for the captaincy role. Mitchell Santner, who has scored 848 runs and picked up 130 wickets, shapes up as a strong option for the vice-captaincy role.
VCA Stadium, Nagpur Pitch Report
*The stats are based on the T20I matches played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
| Pitch type – Generally balanced / batter-friendly |
| Batting 1st Won – 8 matches |
| Batting 2nd Won – 4 matches |
| Average 1st innings score – 146 runs |
IND vs NZ Probable Playing XI
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
New Zealand: Devon Conway (wk), Tim Robinson, Bevon Jacobs, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner (c), Rachin Ravindra, James Neesham, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi
IND vs NZ Dream11 Player Stats
| Player Name | T20I Stats |
|---|---|
| Abhishek Sharma | 1115 runs |
| Devon Conway | 1675 runs |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 2728 runs |
| Mitchell Santner | 848 runs & 130 wickets |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 103 wickets |
| Hardik Pandya | 2002 runs & 101 wickets |
IND vs NZ Dream11 Team
