India opt to bat; Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakravarthy return

Toss India chose to bat vs New Zealand

In their last T20I before the T20 World Cup, India, having already sealed the series win, chose to test themselves by batting first after winning the toss. Suryakumar Yadav, their captain, said he wanted to put the bowlers through the rigours of defending a total in what are expected to be dewy conditions in Thiruvananthapuram.

Both teams rang in the changes. India brought back Ishan Kishan - who missed the fourth T20I with a niggle - Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy, and left out Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi. This - other than the absence of Tilak Varma, who is expected to return from injury in time for the World Cup warm-ups - is more or less India's first-choice T20I XI.

New Zealand made four changes. Finn Allen, fresh from his star turn in Perth Scorchers' BBL title run as the tournament's top run-getter, plays his first game for his national team since March 2025. Also in were middle-order batter Bevon Jacobs and seamers Kyle Jamieson and Lockie Ferguson. Ferguson, who, like Allen, is on a casual contract with NZC, is playing his first game for New Zealand since November 2024.

Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Zak Foulkes and Matt Henry are out, with Henry - who is nursing a niggle - out for "precautionary" reasons according to captain Mitchell Santner.

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 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand: 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Finn Allen, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Bevon Jacobs, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Jacob Duffy