Confident India venture into Hamilton with sights on series win as New Zealand battle for survival

With two ODIs in the bag, India will venture into Hamilton hoping to close the ODI series with two games to spare as they lock horns with New Zealand. The first two ODIs saw rain causing major interruptions and according to the weather forecast for Hamilton, there is a 61 percent chance of precipitation.

Given the bowling strength of both sides, it wouldn’t be surprising if the team winning the toss opts to bowl first. The last couple of games saw both sets of batters struggling to break free apart from a handful of intermittent performances.

In fact, on the day before the game, the ground staff had only half a day to prepare the surface before rain struck again. That only means the surface will have major dampness, which will force the batters to be extra cautious. Given the dominance shown by the bowlers in the last two games, one would expect this clash to once again feature seamers as the ones to watch.

Venue Watch:

The surface in Hamilton will have a lot of dampness, resulting in spongy bounce to deal with. It might also be windy, allowing seamers to make headway, provided they control their line. Batters will have to watch out for bounce and swing. With rain on the cards, the captain winning the toss might opt to bowl first.

Match details:

Match: New Zealand vs India, 3rd ODI

Venue: Seddon Park, Hamilton

Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2026

Time: 7:30 AM IST (3:00 PM local)

Head-to-head:

Matches played – 125

India – 65

New Zealand – 52

Tied – 1

No result - 7

Squads:

India:

Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar, Naman Dhir, Auqib Nabi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan

New Zealand:

Mitchell Santner (c), Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Tom Latham (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, Nathan Smith, Matthew Fisher, Blair Tickner, Tim Seifert, Kyle Jamieson