India squad announcement for New Zealand ODIs: The Board for Control of Cricket in India recently announced India’s 15-man line-up for the much anticipated ODI series against New Zealand.
Shubman Gill has been appointed as the squad captain for the upcoming series. While Shreyas Iyer has been named in the 15 member squad list, he will only be able to play in the upcoming tournament after receiving medical clearance from BCCI’s centre of excellence (COE).
After completing a memorable Vijay Hazare run, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will now represent the national side in the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand which will be played as a part of a larger warm up exercise before the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Other notable players mentioned in the squad include Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd. Siraj and Yashavi Jaisawal. The complete squad list has been posted below.
Indian squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal
India vs New Zealand: When and where to watch the series?
New Zealand’s tour of India will start with a three match ODI series set to commence on January 11, 2026. Following the completion of the ODI series, The tour will then move into a five-match T20I series later in January.Matches in series which will be placed across the venues of Vadodara, Rajkot and Indore. The complete schedule for the ODI tour has been listed as follows
| New Zealand’s Tour of India, 2026 (ODI Series) | ||||
| Sr. No. | Day | Date | Match | Venue |
| 1 | Sunday | 11th January | 1st ODI | Vadodara |
| 2 | Wednesday | 14th January | 2nd ODI | Rajkot |
| 3 | Sunday | 18th January | 3rd ODI | Indore |
All the ODIs (and the T20I matches later in the tour) will be telecast live on the Star Sports network in India. Fans in India can also catch the live stream of the series on the Jio Hotstar app and website.
India vs New Zealand: Key players omitted
Some key players who are also in the T20I team who have been rested for this series include Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. While many sports analysts expected this tournament to make room for players like Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel, who have enjoyed strong tournaments thus far domestically, they failed to make it to the ODI squad.
As per the latest press release, Hardik Pandya has not been cleared by the BCCI COE to bowl 10 overs in a match. Considering the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to follow, his workload is being managed.
With the squad announcement pushed to within a week of the 3-match series, there has been a solid round of Vijay Hazare Trophy matches to use as a reference point for this series. With 22 months to go before that ODI World Cup in South Africa, many sports enthusiasts believe this series provides the BCCI with the perfect opportunity for experimentation with the squad so that they can lock in the best available players for different positions ahead of the 2-27 ODI world Cup.