India's men start a long tour of New Zealand this week, and it opens with five T20Is. The first one is on Thursday 22 October. Here is what is confirmed so far, with the start times in IST so you do not have to convert anything.
The five T20Is
New Zealand Cricket's announced schedule has these five matches: 22 October in Christchurch, 24 October in Christchurch, 27 October in Wellington, 30 October in Auckland and 1 November in Hamilton (ICC). The BCCI match centre lists the first two at 7:00 am UTC, which is 12:30 PM IST, at Hagley Oval (1st T20I, 2nd T20I). We have not seen start times for the last three yet, so we are not guessing them. They will go on our Schedule page once the official match pages carry them.
India's squad
The BCCI named a 16-man T20I squad on 6 October with Shreyas Iyer as captain and Tilak Varma as vice-captain. The rest of the group: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav (BCCI).
It is a young, batting-heavy group, with Abhishek, Samson, Kishan and Sooryavanshi all in the mix for the top order. The spin department has Axar, Varun and Kuldeep, while Arshdeep, Bhuvneshwar, Prince and Mayank share the fast-bowling load. How many of those four seamers play on the Christchurch pitch is one question to watch on Thursday.
New Zealand's side
Mitchell Santner captains the Blackcaps. They lost two players to injury before the series: Mark Chapman (hamstring) and Zak Foulkes (hip flexor). Josh Clarkson and Blair Tickner were called in to replace them. NZC says Chapman is on track to be available for the ODIs. The updated T20I squad is Santner, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Clarkson, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Nathan Smith and Tickner (NZC).
Why this series feels bigger than five T20Is
The T20Is are only the start. The full tour is five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests, a 12-game itinerary that the ICC reports is set to be the largest international tour in NZC history by number of matches. It is India's first Test cricket in New Zealand since 2019 and their first white-ball assignment there since 2022 (ICC).
There is also the recent history. These two teams met in the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on 8 March 2026, and India won by 96 runs. Both squads have changed a lot since then, so this is not a rematch of that team sheet.
How to follow it on this site
Our home page has live cards for cricket. Those cards show Pakistan and India Women at the moment, so for the New Zealand series use the official BCCI match centre for the live score. We will add the New Zealand v India fixtures to the Schedule page as each start time is confirmed, and all times there are in IST.
Squads and timings can change, especially with injuries already in the news. Check the official links above before you plan around a match.
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