India vs New Zealand: Old rivals, new battles, familiar questions
India and New Zealand renew their 70-year cricket rivalry with a 12-match tour from October 22 to December 1. The series features five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests. It is the biggest bilateral tour hosted by New Zealand Cricket and comes amid 100 years of sporting ties between the two countries.
Reading the squads
India's T20I squad mixes the World Cup-winning core, including Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy, with new faces. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Naman Dhir are in, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returns, his swing likely to be useful with a new ball in New Zealand.
India have split their ODI squad too. Shubman Gill captains the first three games before he and the Test specialists leave to prepare for Wellington; Shreyas Iyer takes over for the last two. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are in for all five. Tilak Varma, Auqib Nabi, Yash Thakur and Kumar Kushagra come in for the final two, and Jasprit Bumrah returns for the Tests.
New Zealand have split their ODI selection. The first three games lean on experience, with Tom Latham, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra. The last two bring in pace and power, with Lockie Ferguson, Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, plus uncapped or lightly capped names such as Kristian Clarke, Mitch Hay and Nick Kelly.
