Pace test awaits Shreyas Iyer’s men as 7 fast bowlers feature in New Zealand squad to face India in 5 T20Is

The five-game series will kick off on October 22, and the pitches have been predicted to be partial to pacers.

Updated on: Sep 23, 2026, 13:02:40 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

New Zealand have announced a power-packed 16-member squad for five T20Is against world champions India starting on October 22. The last time these two teams played each other… the occasion was the T20 World Cup final at Ahmedabad in March, where the Indian team comfortably beat Mitchell Santner's men by 96 runs. The Kiwi team must be looking to avenge their humiliating defeat in front of their home fans. As many as 13 players from the T20 World Cup squad are going to feature in the upcoming series. Michael Bracewell and Adam Milne, who were withdrawn from the February-March event after injuries, return to face the Indians under Shreyas Iyer.

Adam Milne hasn't played any international cricket since July 2025. (AFP)

Also Read: Harmanpreet Kaur and the making of a winning habit: How India women's cricket travelled from survival to supremacy

There are seven fast bowlers in the squad, which suggests the pitches are likely to have a lot of juice. Former New Zealand pacer Trent Boult earlier had predicted the surfaces to be supportive for fast bowlers in the months of October and November. There is already a lot of excitement in New Zealand ahead of the series. There are going to be 12 matches across T20Is (5), ODIs (5) and Tests (2), which is understandable: wherever the Indian team goes, they attract a lot of attention. First, Indians are everywhere, and they throng the venues to see their team in action. Plus, India is the best team in the world across formats, and that helps too.

According to New Zealand Cricket (NZC): “The highly anticipated 12-match tour, which also includes five ODIs and two Tests, is on track to smash NZC box-office records with more than 76,000 tickets already snapped up one month out from the opening match.”

New Zealand head coach Rob Walter is also excited and looking forward to welcoming India off the ground and challenging them on the field of play. “It’s going to be awesome to welcome India to our shores and get summer underway. India is a quality team and a challenging opposition, so to take them on in our own conditions in front of Kiwi fans is really exciting. We hear most of the games are going to be sold out, and it should make for some incredible occasions. We’ve got a near full-strength squad that covers all bases, and I’m excited to see how we compete against the current T20 world champions,” he said.

Rachin Ravindra, however, is not part of the squad, having picked up a shoulder injury during a promotional shoot last week. “We’re gutted for Rachin. He’s going to play a big role for us this summer, so it’s important that he doesn’t rush his rehab, but we’re optimistic he’ll be back for the ODIs," Walter said.

BLACKCAPS T20I squad

Mitchell Santner (C), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Nathan Smith

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

Get live cricket scores, match updates, schedules, results and ICC rankings. Follow the latest news, statistics and performances of top teams, players update on Hindustan Times.