New Zealand bowl and hand Kristian Clarke T20I debut
Kuldeep Yadav and Harshit Rana sat out for India, with Axar Patel carded at No. 8
ESPNcricinfo staff
21-Jan-2026 • 8 hrs ago
Suryakumar Yadav gears up for his 100th T20I • AFP/Getty Images
Toss New Zealand chose to bowl vs India
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to bowl in the first T20I against India in Nagpur. He expected it to be a high-scoring game on what he called "a pretty good wicket".
With Michael Bracewell out with a calf injury, New Zealand handed a T20I debut to seam-bowling allrounder Kristian Clarke. In all, they picked three seamers and three spinners.
India were also looking to bowl first with dew expected in the second half of the match. But their captain Suryakumar Yadav, who is playing his 100th T20I, was "happy to bat first" too, in preparation for the T20 World Cup.
Ishan Kishan returned to India's XI in Tilak Varma's absence. Kishan, who last played a T20I in November 2023, is part of India's T20 World Cup squad as a back-up wicketkeeper. In the bowling department, India left out Kuldeep Yadav and Harshit Rana, sticking with their strategy of having genuine batting cushion up to No. 8. For this match, Axar Patel was carded at that slot.
This is the last series for both teams before the T20 World Cup.
India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
New Zealand: 1 Tim Robinson, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Kristian Clarke, 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Jacob Duffy.