India open a five-match T20I series against New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on October 22, with Shreyas Iyer captaining a 16-member squad against Mitchell Santner's hosts in the first fixture of a long tour that also includes five ODIs and two Tests. The match follows on from the 12-match tour schedule confirmed earlier this month and the separate ODI and Test squads named for the later legs, with the BCCI naming the T20I group on its own on October 6.
Iyer's 16-member group, with Tilak Varma as vice-captain, largely carries over from the side that played the recent West Indies series, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Varun Chakravarthy the two fresh additions. The full squad includes Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav alongside Iyer and Varma. With the senior Test and ODI groups led separately by Shubman Gill, this series doubles as a chance for India's white-ball bench strength to state its case ahead of fuller selection calls later in the season.
Mitchell Santner leads a New Zealand squad built largely around the group that finished runners-up to India at this year's T20 World Cup, with Michael Bracewell and Adam Milne both returning from injury. The hosts will be without Rachin Ravindra, ruled out of the T20I leg with a dislocated shoulder, while a pace attack of Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes and Nathan Smith gives Santner options across the five venues this series visits.
The series runs from October 22 to November 1: the first two matches are both at Hagley Oval, before the tour shifts to Wellington for the third, Auckland for the fourth and Hamilton for the fifth and final game. The quick turnaround between the opening two fixtures leaves little room for either side to make wholesale changes early, putting a premium on how both top orders start the tour.
Abhishek Sharma's recent power-hitting form makes him the standout pick at the top of India's order, while Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav both look well suited to a Hagley Oval pitch that has historically offered some turn as matches go on. For New Zealand, the middle order carries extra weight with Ravindra unavailable for the whole T20I leg.
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Squad and schedule details in this article are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting as of October 22, 2026.
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