India land in a faraway country. They are without two of their irreplaceable T20I players, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. They train for one day. They play an international game on the next. This happened earlier this year in Ireland, and contributed to a 2-0 defeat. It was the first time India had ever lost to Ireland in any format, and their first defeat in 17 T20I series or tournaments.

This time India face the same scenario in New Zealand, following a longer transit and consequent jetlag, and face a much stronger team. Such is the cricket schedule these days that teams grit their teeth, somehow get their sleep and fluids in, do what they can at that one training session, and get on with it.

It is all the more challenging to land and almost immediately play in New Zealand because of the distance travelled, because of how rarely India tour the country, and then the unique conditions featuring heavy winds, some drop-in pitches and some singularly shaped grounds.

It is all the more personal for India because not many sides can claim to have won their most recent Test and ODI series in India. New Zealand can make that claim. They didn't quite turn up for their most recent T20I contest against India, the T20 World Cup final in March, but at home, in a best-of-five contest, expect New Zealand to make it a difficult summer.

For the first time since that World Cup, New Zealand will be close to full-strength in T20Is after losing their big stars to franchise leagues when they played South Africa and Bangladesh. New Zealand are a rare international team with no franchise-based league at home. Many of their big T20I stars are taken away by other leagues during their international season. So this is also a rare chance for New Zealand fans to get to watch some top-quality T20 cricket from their stadiums.

New Zealand: WLLLW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
India: LWLWW

Shreyas Iyer was given the understandable elbow room after India lost series in Ireland and England, in his first two captaincy assignments after replacing the World-Cup-winning Suryakumar Yadav. With the attention that Indian cricket gets, Iyer will be under the scanner and will need runs off his own bat early in the piece.

Finn Allen hasn't played a single T20 game in New Zealand since March 2025. He's played 77 games elsewhere since then, entertaining crowds all over the rest of the world. After more than 18 months of playing in weird time zones, Allen will be available to his home crowds in flesh and blood. He averages 35.68 and strikes at 184.21 at home. A continuation of those numbers will be appreciated by the home team and the crowds.

New Zealand will have three spin options despite the absence of Mark Chapman because one of them is their captain Mitchell Santner, and the other two, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips, can make the XI as batters alone. The seam department is stacked, with Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson and Blair Tickner to choose from.

Rachin Ravindra's injury-forced absence could mean Devon Conway plays in the top three with Finn Allen and Tim Seifert.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 3 Devon Conway, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Lockie Ferguson.

The first big challenge for India is that their spin allrounders will be less effective with the ball than in Asian conditions. At home India have been relying upon Axar Patel, Naman Dhir and one seam allrounder to bowl eight overs between them. They might have to move away from that formula, leave out Dhir, who smashed 24 off 6 in his last outing, and play two seam allrounders.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who made a premature return in the washed-out series decider against West Indies, should play just for his experience if nothing else. Varun Chakravarthy, fit again, poses an interesting dilemma: a mystery spinner or a third quick? South Africa played three spinners in the last T20I played in Christchurch but that was the end of season. Early-summer conditions might dictate a seam-heavy side.

India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Prince Yadav/ Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

It is early summer, but the weather has been good in the lead-up to the series. However, the players might not get the advantage of the pleasant highs in the mid-20s as it will get quite nippy by the time the match starts at 8pm. Fresh pitches could also mean it is nippy underfoot. Dew cannot be ruled out late in the night.