Big Change! India Squad for New Zealand Series Announced

With the international calendar quickly moving towards the ICC Men’s World Cup 2026 and the coming bilateral tours, Indian cricket is in the decisive planning phase. The global tournament is set to begin in February, but right before it, India will host New Zealand at the Indian land for T20I and ODI matches. With the New Zealand tour of India scheduled for January month teams are now finalizing their combinations, workloads, and leadership roles.

India has recently wrapped up a three-format series against South Africa, including a strong win against South Africa, and now the attention has shifted to the next assignment. The New Zealand tour of India, 2026, is set to be the final major white-ball series before the World Cup, making it a key checkpoint for selectors and team management.

India Squad Announcement for New Zealand Series 2026

The India Squad for New Zealand Series will offer a balanced and largely familiar lineup in the respective format with a few minor changes to ensure proper management of players' workload, injury, and match needs. With the limited time before the New Zealand tour of India, selectors have made some core changes in the T20 team. The core of the ODI side that featured in recent bilateral series could remain intact, and a few changes could be made as per the match conditions, and to provide more stability. Leadership remains the same as Suryakumar Yadav will lead the T20 side, whereas the ODI team is expected to be led by Shubman Gill. Here are the full squads of both T20Is and ODIs:

India ODI Squad (Probable):

Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Tilak Varma, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, and Arshdeep Singh.

India T20I Squad:

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vc), Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

New Zealand Tour of India 2026

The New Zealand tour of India, 2026, will feature eight matches in total, providing India with valuable exposure at home. The tour will begin with a three-match ODI series followed by five T20Is, running from January 11 to January 31. These matches will be played at some of the best cricket stadiums in the world. The ODIs will be played in Vadodara, Rajkot, and Indore, while the T20s will move across Nagpur, Raipur, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, and Thiruvananthapuram.

For India, this series would be an important one with the World Cup approaching and also with their senior players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma featuring. This tour will be the final test for the Indian T20 team ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026, where they can tick boxes and work on where they are lacking to bring back the World Cup again and defend the Championship.