After thrashing Black Caps by 3-0 in three match ODI series at home grounds, Men In Blue are all set to take on New Zealand in the three match T20 series now. In the absence of senior players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and regular captain Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya will lead the Indian cricket team.

Michell Santner will captain the New Zealand as Kane Williamson is not the part of India tour of New Zealand. India captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bowl first in the 1st T20I.

Hardik also made clear that India’s bench strength is strong as well as the physical fitness of its players. When asked over playing XI, Hardik Pandya said that as the rule says only to pick 11, hence Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar and Yuzi Chahal have not been picked.

IND vs NZ 1st T20I Playing XI

Team India Playing XI – Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi

The first match is being played at Ranchi’s JSCA International Stadium Complex. MS Dhoni, who hails from Ranchi was seen this morning interacting with Team India.

Team New Zealand Playing XI: Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner(c), Michael Bracewell, Jacob Duffy, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson and Blair Tickner.

IND vs NZ T20 Schedule, Venue and Time

1st T20: January 27, at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi from 7:00 pm.

2nd T20: January 29, at Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow from 7:00 pm.

3rd T20: 1st February, at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad from 7:00 pm.

IND vs NZ T20 Squads

Team India: Hardik Pandya (Captain),Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav (Vice Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), and Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw and Mukesh Kumar.

Team New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (Captain), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, and Dane Cleaver (wk), Devon Conway (wk), Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Ben Lister, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rippon, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, and Blair Tickner.

The Indian team has defeated New Zealand by eight wickets in the semi-finals of the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup 2023. With this, Team India has also reached the World Cup finals. Batting first, New Zealand had set a target of 108 runs in front of India. The Indian team achieved this by losing two wickets and has made it to the final.

Now the U19 T20 World Cup 2023 final will be played on January 29 at 5:15 pm. India will face the winner of second semi finals, which will be played between Australia and England today evening.

India beat New Zealand in semis

India defeated New Zealand by eight wickets to enter the final of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. In todays match, New Zealand had set a target of 108 runs in front of India, which Women In Blue achieved by losing two wickets. Parshvi Chopra took the maximum, three wickets for India. At the same time, vice-captain Shweta Sehrawat scored an unbeaten 61 runs.

India’s score had crossed 100 runs at the loss of two wickets. Shweta Sehrawat was then playing with a half-century and Trisha had entered to bat. The Indian team had reached the threshold of victory and was just a few runs away from making it to the finals of the tournament.

New Zealand had a very poor start

The team’s first wicket fell on the score of three runs and both the openers returned to the pavilion on the score of five runs. Anna Browning scored one and Emma McLeod scored two runs. After this, Georgia Plimmer took one end and Isabel scored 26 runs in 22 balls to return the Kiwi team to the match.

Captain Sharp was also dismissed after scoring 13 runs and half of the New Zealand team had returned to the pavilion for just 74 runs. After this, Emma Irwin was dismissed for three, Kate Irwin for two, Logneberg for four and Natasha for three. Meanwhile, Plimmer was also dismissed after scoring 35 runs in 32 balls in the process of scoring fast runs.

Knight’s innings of 12 runs took New Zealand’s score beyond 100 runs. In the end New Zealand team managed to score 107 runs losing nine wickets. Parshvi Chopra took the maximum three wickets for India. Titas Sadhu, Mannat Kashyap, Shefali Verma and Archana Devi got one wicket each.

After defeating New Zealand by 3-0 in the three-match ODI series, the Indian team will now play the three-match T20I series against the Black Caps. The first match of the T20 series between India and New Zealand will be played in Ranchi on Friday. Under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, the young team India has performed brilliantly so far.

The team would like to continue this performance going forward. At the same time, the command of New Zealand is in the hands of experienced all-rounder Mitchell Santner. However, Santner does not have much captaincy experience. In such a situation, the Indian team can take advantage of this.

Statistics of both teams

A total of 22 T20 matches have been played between India and New Zealand so far. Of these, India has won 10, while the Kiwi team has won nine matches and 3 matches are tied. Both the teams have come face to face eight times in India. Of these, Team India won five times, while New Zealand won three matches. India and New Zealand team have come face to face once in Ranchi before. In this match played in 2021, Team India had won by seven wickets.

Moreover, the Indian team has not lost to New Zealand in this format for the last 15 months. In this format, India got the last defeat from the Kiwi team on 31 October 2021. Then New Zealand defeated India in the T20 World Cup in Dubai. Since then, both the teams have faced each other five times in this format, out of which four matches have been won by India, while one match has ended in a tie.

This is the eighth bilateral T20 series between the two teams. India has won four of these series, while India has lost in three. India’s last defeat to New Zealand in T20 series was in 2018/19. Then the Kiwi team defeated India by 2–1 in the three-match T20 series.

Great captaincy from Hardik

India’s performance so far under Hardik’s captaincy has been impressive. He has captained Team India in eight T20 matches and India has won six matches out of these. Under his captaincy, the Indian team has not lost a single match so far. One match ended in a tie, while one match ended in no result. Under the captaincy of Hardik, the Indian team has won bilateral T20 series against Ireland, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Looking at the Mission 2024 T20 World Cup, the Indian team would like to maintain the winning streak.

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IND vs NZ T20 Schedule, Venue and Time

1st T20: January 27, at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi from 7:00 pm.

2nd T20: January 29, at Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow from 7:00 pm.

3rd T20: 1st February, at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad from 7:00 pm.

IND vs NZ T20 Squads

Team India: Hardik Pandya (Captain),Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav (Vice Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), and Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw and Mukesh Kumar.

Team New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (Captain), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, and Dane Cleaver (wk), Devon Conway (wk), Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Ben Lister, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rippon, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, and Blair Tickner.

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