Pressure on NZ as they look to stop India's T20 juggernaut

India have started this series reiterating their strength and putting the world on notice. Losing the toss, asked to bat first in a night game, they blazed away to 238, looking far from the team that has lost both their last Test and ODI series at home to New Zealand. Swap Ishan Kishan with the injured Tilak Varma, and you have a full-strength India side. This being the last series before the T20 World Cup, India will not want to let up any of the intensity as they stay in central India and move from Nagpur to Raipur.

New Zealand have their task cut out against a side that has now won 10 T20I series or tournaments in a row, including the World Cup and the Asia Cup. They have only grown stronger along the way. Then again, when New Zealand won the Tests, India had not lost a home series in 12 years. Their ODI series also was their first series triumph in India. They will be desperate to win in Raipur and not be left with three must-win matches in a row.

India WWWLWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)

New Zealand LWWWL

New Zealand rarely get called out on tactics, but their captain Mitchell Santner came under fire for not bowling out in Nagpur and letting Daryl Mitchell bowl the last over. Santner perhaps wanted to deny the left-hand batter a look at his left-arm spin in the last over, but overall he will want to improve on his figures of three overs for 37 runs. He did get Suryakumar Yadav out, though, and will want to display some of his chops.

Abhishek Sharma remains a problem for Santner and Ish Sodhi. He took 15 off 5 from Santner, and 24 off 10 from Sodhi. And that just resulted in problems for New Zealand right till the end of the innings. If they don't get Abhishek out early, they are likely to have the same problems again.

Axar Patel suffered a cut on his index finger and didn't finish his spell. He should be okay to go as India have not asked for a replacement but if they do decide to play safe with him they could play Harshit Rana in his place.

India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt.), 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Harshit Rana/Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

If Michael Bracewell, who is recovering from his calf strain, is ready, he could replace Sodhi to provide further depth. Matt Henry could come in for one of the fast bowlers, possibly Kyle Jamieson, who has played every match on this trip.

New Zealand (probable): 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 Michael Bracewell/ Ish Sodhi, 10 Kyle Jamieson/ Matt Henry, 11 Jacob Duffy

In the only T20I in Raipur so far, India successfully defended 174 by a margin of 20 runs against Australia in 2023. The last of the IPL matches that Raipur hosted was in 2016 so that won't tell us anything about the conditions expected. For what it's worth, chasing teams have won four and lost two in IPL matches in Raipur. The weather is pleasant.