Just three days after New Zealand lost to Australia in the 2021 T20 World Cup final, the team has flown to India to play a three T20I, two Test series beginning from Wednesday, November 17th 2021. 

The two teams are coming in with contrasting fortunes from the recently concluded World Cup, with India having crashed out of the tournament in the group stage itself. Ahead of the first match between the Men in Blue and the Black Caps, below are some points to remember: 

First tournament under Rahul-Rohit combo 

This will be the first assignment for India’s newly appointed T20I captain, Rohit Sharma. This will also be a first for the new Head Coach Rahul Dravid, who had a great outing as the U-19 coach previously. He will be taking over coaching duties from Ravi Shastri. 

Rohit is also India’s highest T20I run scorer against New Zealand with 352 runs from 14 T20Is at a strike rate of 135.9. He has four 50+ scores against the Black Caps. 

Recent form 

As far as recent form is concerned, India crashed out before entering the semifinal of the T20 World Cup. However, their last three games have been commanding victories, and India might want to ride on that high, despite their last loss coming against New Zealand itself. 

New Zealand has had an impressive T20 World Cup season, winning four group matches and making their way to the final. They will want to put behind their loss against Australia in the final and get back to winning ways. 

Williamson to skip T20I matches 

Kane Williamson will skip the T20I matches on the tour to India with pacer Tim Southee taking over captaincy duties from him. Williamson is reportedly taking time off to prepare for the subsequent two-Test series that will be played from 25th November to 7th December. 

Head-to-head in T20Is 

India and New Zealand have met 17 times in T20Is, with the Black Caps edging India out 9-8 in the head-to-head win count. Another aspect to note would be that two of these eight encounters India won were ones that had trickled down to a super over. 

However, the last time India and New Zealand played a bilateral series was in 2020, where the former won with a 5-0 clean sweep. New Zealand are yet to win a bilateral T20I series in India. 

India, New Zealand T20I squads 

India: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj 

New Zealand: Tim Southee (C), Martin Guptill, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Todd Astle, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Adam Milne. 

New Zealand will tour India between 17th November and 7th december. The teams will lock horns for the first T20I in Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium,