India take on formidable New Zealand in stern ODI challenge
With the dust settled on the T20I series, it is time for the ODIs, and India are set to go all guns blazing against a formidable New Zealand. Both sides come into the contest on the back of an ODI series against West Indies. India hosted them at home, while New Zealand travelled to the Caribbean to take on the same opposition.
The Men in Blue get a major boost with the return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The two seasoned campaigners have been in fine form, with Rohit scoring 101 and 92 in the last two games against West Indies, while Kohli struck an unbeaten 139 and a breezy 29 in the same series.
Kohli also has milestones within reach. He needs 75 runs to overtake Ricky Ponting as the highest run-scorer in ODIs against New Zealand, and 12 runs to become the first batter to score 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3.
New Zealand beat India in their last bilateral ODI series, winning 2-1 in January for their first-ever ODI series win in India. They will hope to carry that momentum forward. But having already pocketed the T20I series, India will be keen to counter the force the Black Caps have been in ODIs. The series is also a test of how India fare in bouncy conditions against quality seamers, similar to what they can expect in South Africa at next year’s World Cup.
India have named a split squad for the series, with Shubman Gill leading the side in the first three ODIs and Shreyas Iyer taking over for the last two.
Venue Watch:
Eden Park in Auckland is known for its bounce and swing, where batters will be tested to their core. In the last two ODIs played there, the sides batting under lights were bowled out for 150 and 76.
That suggests the team batting second will have to deal with serious movement combined with steep bounce, so batters will need to be watchful. The short, uneven boundaries, however, will give batters some relief.
Match details:
Match: New Zealand vs India, 1st ODI
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2026
Time: 7:30 AM IST (3:00 PM local)
Head-to-head:
Matches played - 123
India - 63
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
