Team India's tour of New Zealand kick starts next Friday at Eden Park where India will take on the hosts for the first of five T20 matches. As a part of the month and a half long tour, Kohli’s men will be playing five T-20, three ODI and two test matches. 

Team India's tour of New Zealand kick starts next Friday at Eden Park where India will take on the hosts for the first of five T20 matches. As a part of the month and a half long tour, Kohli’s men will be playing five T-20, three ODI and two test matches. 

India and New Zealand played their first cricket match (test) ever at Hyderabad back in 1955. Since then both teams bilaterally played 57 tests, 65 ODI and ten T20 matches so far.

India vs New Zealand (Bilateral only)

Indian fans in New Zealand loved watching men in blue playing in front of them regardless of the game result. Last year India thrashed Blackcaps in ODI series by 4-1 and Blackcaps took sweet revenge by whipping India in T20 series by 2-1.

Team India's recent dominant performance against South Africa, Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka give them the upper hand. On the other side, New Zealand's erratic performance against Sri Lanka, England and Australia give them a lot of concerns.

T20: To begin with T20, T20 series between India and New Zealand is going to be very entertaining to watch for numerous reasons.

New Zealand beat India 2-1 when India played T20 series in New Zealand last year. India will be travelling with the bunch of naive talented faces who are always up for new challenges. T20 series against Blackcaps will give newcomers a platform to showcase their talent.

On the other side, Super Smash domestic T20 league just concluded where many key Blackcaps participated. Munro and Guptill had a good domestic T20 tournament. Upcoming T20 series will be all about the opening batsmen, all-rounders and a death bowling attack. India has star batsmen like Rohit, Rahul, Virat and Shivam Dube as an all-rounder while Bumrah will be leading India's bowling attack in T20. Guptill and Munro will be back for Blackcaps' white-ball cricket along with De Grandgomme while Southee will be the key bowler for Blackcaps.

India vs New Zealand (T20 statistics comparison)

Team India’s T20 squad for New Zealand:

Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Praveen Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur.

Blackcaps T20 squad for India

Kane Williamson (c), Hamish Bennett, Tom Bruce (matches 4-5) Colin de Grandhomme (matches 1-3), Martin Guptill, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Colin Munro, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner.

One Day Internationals:

One day series against New Zealand in New Zealand will be a real acid test for team India. The Worldcup finalist must be feeling quite positive after knocking out India in the semi-final of the World Cup 2019. India's recent performance in one-dayers has not been up to the mark. India's recent ten-wicket loss against Australia is an example.

The upcoming one day series between India and New Zealand is likely to be dominated by the batsmen. Rohit and Kohli will be India's trump cards while Guptill and Taylor will be the key batsmen for Blackcaps. The one-day series will also be a big challenge for Bumrah and Boult as they will be returning from injury.

India vs New Zealand (ODI statistics comparison)

Test:

Looking at the bilateral test record for India and New Zealand, India won 21 test matches out of 57 matches played so far. This time when India and New Zealand clash horns for the purest form of the game, fast bowlers will have vital roles to play for both teams. Shami, Ishant, Umesh and Bumrah will be India's fast bowling weapons while Blackcaps will have Southee, Boult and Wagner.

In the longer format of the game, Pujara and Kohli will be India's batting backbones while Blackcaps will be heavily dependent on Latham, Kane and Ross. This is going to be an interesting competition for India to challenge New Zealand in their own backyard.

India vs New Zealand (Test statistics comparison)

Indian Cricket Team with the PayTM Cup in Bengaluru (Image: Posted on Twitter by BCCI)

Some little-known facts about both teams and their players:

Do you know...

• During under-19 CWC 2008, Virat captained India and Kane captained New Zealand.
• Rohit Sharma became the first and the only batsman to hit five centuries in one edition of the world cup. He did it in CWC 2019.
• Last time when India and NZ played a test match in New Zealand, Brandon McCullum became the first Kiwi batsman to hit a triple century at Basin Reserve.
• Rishabh Pant is one of the very few cricketers who scored first test runs by hitting a six. He did it on the second ball he faced in Test cricket.
• Do you know Ross Taylor’s full name? It’s Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor
• Last year four Indian bowlers took hattricks across all formats. Shami and Kuldeep Yadav (ODI), Bumrah (Test) and Deepak Chahar (T20)
• Martin Guptill holds the record for most runs by a player in a world cup innings. He scored 237* vs West Indies at Wellington in CWC 2015.

Aakar Vyas is an Auckland based sports analyst and guest writer for The Indian Weekender. The views are his own and do necessarily reflect that of the publisher.