India vs New Zealand T20 series 2026: schedule, head-to-head and what the four grounds say

India start a five-match T20I series in New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday 22 October, and they have never played a T20I at that ground. Every game starts at 8pm local time, which is 12:30pm IST. India lead the head-to-head 17 wins to 11 with three ties, they have lost only three of the 20 T20Is played between the sides since the start of 2020, and they have not lost a T20I in New Zealand since February 2019. The record says India go in as the likelier winners. The grounds say it may be closer than that.

India vs New Zealand T20 schedule

The T20Is open a 12-match tour that also has five ODIs and two Tests, the last of them back at Hagley Oval from 27 November to 1 December.

Match	Date	Ground	Start (IST)
1st T20I	Thursday 22 October	Hagley Oval, Christchurch	12:30pm
2nd T20I	Saturday 24 October	Hagley Oval, Christchurch	12:30pm
3rd T20I	Tuesday 27 October	HNRY Stadium, Wellington	12:30pm
4th T20I	Friday 30 October	Eden Park, Auckland	12:30pm
5th T20I	Sunday 1 November	Seddon Park, Hamilton	12:30pm

India vs New Zealand T20 head-to-head

The two sides have played 31 T20Is, and two more were abandoned without a ball bowled. India have won 17, New Zealand 11, and three were tied. That overall figure hides a reversal. New Zealand won six of the first eight meetings, including the 2007 World T20 game in Johannesburg and both matches of India’s first T20I tour of New Zealand in 2009. Since January 2020 it has gone the other way: of the 20 played, India have won 14, lost three and tied three.

Two of those ties count as India wins in practice. In Hamilton on 29 January 2020 and in Wellington two days later, the scores finished level and India won both Super Overs. The third tie, at Napier on 22 November 2022, was a DLS tie in a rain-hit game with no Super Over, and it was enough to give India the series 1-0.

Split	Played	India won	NZ won	Tied	Abandoned
All T20Is	31	17	11	3	2
In New Zealand	12	5	4	3	1
Since January 2020	20	14	3	3	1

New Zealand’s three wins in that stretch came at the 2021 World Cup in Dubai, in Ranchi in January 2023 and in Visakhapatnam in January 2026. The last meeting was the World Cup final in Ahmedabad on 8 March, when India made 255 for 5, bowled New Zealand out for 159 and won by 96 runs.

India’s record in New Zealand is the half that matters this month, and it is much tighter: five wins, four defeats and three ties from 12 matches, with one more washed out. Their last defeat there was in Hamilton on 10 February 2019, when they chased 213 and finished four runs short. Since then they have won four and tied three, and one more game was washed out.

What the four grounds have done in T20Is

India’s record splits sharply by ground. The only one of the four where they have won a T20I in normal time comes fourth in the order.

Ground	India’s T20I record there	What the ground’s T20I record says
Hagley Oval	Never played	Chasing side won 8 of 14 completed games
HNRY Stadium	L2, T1 (Super Over win), 1 abandoned	Batting first won 6 of 10 decided since 2018
Eden Park	W3, all chasing	Australia’s 245 for 5 in 2018 still the top chase
Seddon Park	L1, T1 (Super Over win)	Batting first won 8 of 13 decided

Hagley Oval, Christchurch

India’s only T20I in Christchurch, in February 2009, was at the old AMI Stadium, not here, so the first two games will be India’s first T20Is at the ground. Eleven of the 15 captains who won the toss at Hagley chose to field, the chasing side has won eight of the 14 completed games and the average first-innings score is 162.0. It is also not much of a home fortress. New Zealand have won six and lost six of their T20Is here, and they lost the last two that finished, to England in October 2025 and South Africa in March 2026. Our Hagley Oval pitch report has the full breakdown.

HNRY Stadium, Wellington

India have never won a T20I at the ground in normal time. They lost there in 2009 and 2019, won the 2020 tie in a Super Over and had the 2022 game abandoned without a ball bowled. The ground’s all-time record favours the chase, ten wins from 17 decided matches, but since 2018 the side batting first has won six of ten. The first-innings average across the nine completed first innings since 2019 is 174.8. More in the Wellington Regional Stadium pitch report.

Eden Park, Auckland

This is India’s ground. They have played three T20Is at Eden Park and won all three, every one of them batting second, including a chase of 204 in January 2020. The ground’s record chase is still Australia’s 245 for 5 in 2018. The Eden Park pitch report lists the rest.

Seddon Park, Hamilton

The last game is at New Zealand’s strongest ground. They have won 11 of their 14 T20Is at Seddon Park, and batting first has won eight of the 13 that produced a result. The toss has been close to useless: the captain who won it went on to win only three of those 13. India’s two visits produced the four-run defeat in 2019 and the Super Over win in 2020, in which Kane Williamson made 95. Our Seddon Park pitch report has the detail.

India’s squad for the New Zealand T20Is

Shreyas Iyer captains the 16: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav. Jasprit Bumrah is rested. Ravi Bishnoi lost his place to Varun, back from a side strain, and Bhuvneshwar, whose previous T20I was against New Zealand at Napier in 2022, was added for the Bengaluru decider against West Indies on 17 October and played, though rain ended it before he bowled. Our squad story covers the selection.

New Zealand’s squad

Mitchell Santner leads New Zealand’s 16: Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Josh Clarkson, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Nathan Smith and Blair Tickner. Rachin Ravindra is out with a dislocated shoulder, and Mark Chapman (hamstring) and Zak Foulkes (hip flexor) were ruled out after the squad was named, which is how Clarkson and Tickner came in. Here is how those changes happened.

How the series looks

On the record alone India look likely to win the series. They are 14-3 against New Zealand since 2020 and have not lost a T20I in New Zealand since February 2019, and the one ground on the itinerary where they have a perfect record, Eden Park, comes in the fourth game. New Zealand will also be without Ravindra and Chapman.

The case for New Zealand is the conditions. A spring series at grounds where seam does more than it does in India could suit a pace group with Ferguson, Henry, Jamieson and Milne in it, and India’s own seam attack is thinner without Bumrah. If Hagley plays to its record, the captain who wins the toss in Christchurch will probably bowl, and the chase may have the edge in the first two games. The series could then turn on Wellington and Hamilton, where India have played T20Is before and are still waiting for a win in normal time.

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