India A get three four-dayers in New Zealand, and that is the only red-ball preparation before the Tests
India A will play New Zealand A in three four-day matches from October 24 to November 10, finishing nine days before the first Test in Wellington. It is the only red-ball cricket anyone in the Test squad will get in New Zealand conditions.
Sep 3, 2026
India A will play three four-day matches against New Zealand A between October 24 and November 10, and the schedule says plenty about who the selectors want in front of them before the Test series in late November.
Three matches, two grounds
The first game runs from October 24 to 27 at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln. The second shifts to Hagley Oval in Christchurch from October 31 to November 3. The third returns to Lincoln from November 7 to 10. That leaves nine days between the end of the A series and the first Test in Wellington, which begins on November 19. The second Test is in Christchurch from November 27 to December 1.
It is tidy planning. Lincoln sits just outside Christchurch, so the group barely moves for the duration, and a batter who makes runs on those surfaces in early November has done it in conditions that will look familiar when the Tests come around.
The senior squad is booked elsewhere
What makes this A tour unusual is how completely it overlaps with the senior one. India play five T20Is and five ODIs in New Zealand from October 22 to November 15, part of a 12-match tour across all three formats. So the white-ball squad and the A squad will be in the same country at the same time, playing different formats in different cities, for close to three weeks.
For the red-ball group, that is the whole point. There is no other route to match practice. Anyone who ends up in the white-ball squad will walk into the Wellington Test having last held a red ball weeks earlier, and anyone left at home will have been playing on Indian pitches. Lincoln and Hagley Oval are the only red-ball cricket in New Zealand conditions on offer, which makes the squad picked for them something close to a shortlist.
The last A trip is a reminder of how quickly that shortlist can change. B Sai Sudharsan made 332 runs in four innings on the tour of Sri Lanka, including a 168, and then a toe injury picked up on that trip ruled him out of the senior Test series that followed.
The Ranji Trophy pays for it
The domestic season carries the cost. The first phase of the Ranji Trophy runs from October 11 to November 5 and contains four rounds, so any player who flies to New Zealand misses most of it. A state side that loses two India A batters in the same window starts its season with a reshaped top order and no obvious fix.
New Zealand have the same problem from the opposite end. Their Ford Trophy one-day competition begins on October 28, and the Plunket Shield does not start until November 19, so their A players are being pulled out of the white-ball tournament rather than the first-class one.
Two Tests the table needs
None of this is being treated as a warm-up exercise, and the World Test Championship table explains why. New Zealand are third on 72.22 per cent and reasonably placed, with a tour of Australia to come in December and January and a home series against Sri Lanka still on the list. India are fifth on 51.52 per cent from 11 matches, and after New Zealand their cycle finishes with five home Tests against Australia, who lead the table, in January and February.
Two Tests in Wellington and Christchurch will not settle India’s cycle by themselves. Losing them would come close to it. That is a lot of weight to hand a squad with almost no red-ball preparation behind it, which is exactly why three four-dayers in Canterbury matter more this year than an A tour usually would.