India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Shreyas Iyer wins toss and opts to bowl first vs NZ in Christchurch

India (IND) vs New Zealand (NZ) Live Cricket Score, 1st T20I: Nitish Kumar Reddy and Mayank Yadav come in for India in place of Shivam Dube and Prince Yadav for the first of the five-match T20I series on Thursday at Christchurch

India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Shreyas Iyer’s India won the toss and opted to bowl first against Mitchell Santner’s New Zealand in the first of the five-match T20I series at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday. India has had the upper hand against New Zealand this year, winning the bilateral series in India and then beating them in the World Cup final

IND vs NZ 1st T20I Match Scorecard: Check Here

Story continues below this ad

This, though, will be a different challenge from what they have played the Kiwis against previously. The dimensions will be smaller than the Indian grounds, but the bounce and seam movement will be significant. The Indian team, who have been travelling a lot lately, will play today just five days after the game against West Indies in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, New Zealand will want to taste blood by taking revenge for the Indian domination on their home ground. Their pace attack will suit these conditions, and the dimensions and shapes of the boundaries will give them a huge advantage.

Scroll down to follow live score updates of India vs New Zealand 1st T20I

Live Updates
Oct 22, 2026 12:20 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Mitchell Santner at toss

We were going to bowl as well. Obviously, it's a fresh pitch; it looks pretty good though, so we should get some runs. (On the long international break) It's been good. It's been pretty busy, but guys have gotten back into camp and are obviously really excited for a big series. You know, I guess an all-format tour against India is always a cool one. Obviously guys have been playing overseas, training, but everyone's ready to go now. (On the playing XI) A couple of guys aren't here, but I think the depth we have at the moment is really, really good. So we've got Duffy, KJ and Conway missing out, so similar make-up to India with four seamers. (On Bevon Jacobs) You know, he's shown, I guess, what he can do for a period of time now. He's obviously got the power and is a very good middle-order player. So it's, I guess a good series for him to, you know, I guess test himself against a very good team in some good wickets.

Oct 22, 2026 12:15 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Shreyas Iyer at toss

Obviously a quick turnaround, want to have fair idea about how the wicket will play, how much the bounce it's going to offer, and based on that we took this decision. [How has the team travelled?] I think pretty well. A lot of them, they took a while to get accustomed to the conditions and also the weather, the time difference especially. But no complaints. We are a bunch of professionals and everybody knows that in the dressing room. [Takeaways from the WI series] Well, a lot of positives, honestly, especially in our batting. I think scoring 230, 250 in almost every alternate game, it was a plus for us. And also bowling-wise, it wasn't easy to bowl on smaller ground and flat wickets, but boys showed a lot of character and that is the same attitude and approach we want to come here with. We've got two changes. So Reddy comes in for Dube and Mayank comes in for Prince.

Oct 22, 2026 12:11 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: NZ playing XI

Finn Allen, Tim Seifert(w), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson

Oct 22, 2026 12:07 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Sanju Samson ahead of game

[On the quick turnaround after playing the West Indies in India four days ago, his travel experience, and his excitement about playing more international cricket] Travel was really nice. I think you get that luxury of being an Indian player. We are well taken care of. Everything was very nice. The more you play, the better. I think we are at the stage of our career where we love coming in, coming out and playing for the country more. So very much excited. I think coming to New Zealand is always very refreshing. Good people, good climate, good atmosphere to come and play a great brand of cricket. [On how he manages the pressure of being an Indian cricketer now compared to three, four or five years ago] Definitely, you need to find your own patterns. You need to find your own mental state. Everyone has their own mantras to actually be at their best mental state here. I think, it definitely took me a while, but I can say that I found out my own way to enjoy myself here. [On Stephen Fleming mentioning that he took up painting during the IPL] I think I was too bored to play under him, maybe that's why I took painting. That was going really well during the IPL, but now I have many things to consider while I'm here. So yes, enjoying my time.

Oct 22, 2026 12:05 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Toss

Shreyas Iyer wins toss and opts to bowl first vs NZ in Christchurch

Oct 22, 2026 12:04 PM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: IND playing XI

Oct 22, 2026 11:49 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Iyer on Sooryavanshi's exposure

"So, if you see, when he is coming overseas, he will get a fair idea how to play on these particular wickets. Next time, whenever he comes in these conditions, he will be very well-prepared. And he can also instruct the other team members, whoever comes here for the first time," he said.

Oct 22, 2026 11:42 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Iyer on Sooryavanshi

Iyer said that it is important for a player as talented as Sooryavanshi to "always be happy around the dressing room". "He is very young, he has more years to get opportunities. It's not like he can walk in right now, because our openers are scoring consistently, and they have won the World Cup," Iyer told reporters

Oct 22, 2026 11:28 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Shreyas Iyer ahead of the game

"If we look at the conditions here, fast bowling suits the best. It's not like the conditions are completely different. But when we played in England, they had prepared wickets according to our batting. On a given day, no one knows how the wicket will be, so we'll try to acclimatise as soon as possible. And if we have a good practice session, then every individual will get a fair idea about how to plan."

Oct 22, 2026 11:19 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: IND playing XI

Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav/Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

Oct 22, 2026 11:08 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: NZ playing XI

Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson

Oct 22, 2026 10:59 AM IST
India Vs New Zealand Live Score, 1st T20I: Hola!

Hello and welcome to our live blog of India taking on New Zealand. Well, what a mouth-watering series we have on cards; the only slightly frustrating part is that it is just a two-match Test series rather than three or four. Well, it is the product of the times we live in, but the white-ball stuff is quite packed; we start with a five-match T20I series and a five-match ODI series. How often do we see five-match ODI series these days? So sit back and relax we got you with all the live action and analysis from our writes do stay with us for this tour.

Bounce, movement, NZ fast bowlers: India’s six-hitting phenoms face big test

Despite public chatter around young prospect Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, captain Shreyas Iyer affirmed that Sooryavanshi cannot currently walk into India's playing eleven due to the team's stacked and wildly successful top order. Supported by proven performers like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Sai Sudharsan waiting on the bench—and with KL Rahul phased out—India's current opening trio of Sanju Samson (T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament), Ishan Kishan (No. 1 T20I batter), and Abhishek Sharma (No. 2 T20I batter) remain untouchable after driving India to a World Cup title and sustained bilateral dominance. (Read more from Sandip G)

Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments