India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to field against New Zealand in the first match of their five-T20I series in Christchurch on Thursday (October 22, 2026).

India made two changes to their playing XI from the final T20I against the West Indies, bringing in all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and Mayank Yadav in place of Shivam Dube and Prince Yadav.

Teams:

India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Mayank Yadav.

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson.