Shreyas Iyer has not been named in India’s Playing XI for the India vs New Zealand 1st T20I despite being Tilak Varma’s replacement. India lock horns against New Zealand in the first T20I of the five-match series.
With the T20 World Cup title defence approaching, India take on New Zealand in their final assignment before the global showpiece tournament. The Men in Blue face the Kiwis in a five-match series with the first clash starting at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur.
India will be having a new No.3 as Tilak Varma is recovering from his testicular torsion surgery and will be out from the first three matches. In his absence, Shreyas Iyer was named the replacement for the opening three matches. He has made a comeback to the T20Is after a long time. However, Iyer has not got a place in the team for the series opener.ย
Why is Iyer not playing?
Iyer is not part of the Playing XI despite being the injury replacement to Varma. However, with Ishan Kishan returning to the side and being in the squad for the T20 World Cup 2026, he has been picked to have some game time under his belt.ย
India T20I Suryakumar Yadav had confirmed the same in the pre-match press conference. “Ishan will bat at number 3 because he is a part of our T20 World Cup team and he was picked in the squad first so it’s our responsibility to give him a chance,” Surya said in the pre-match press conference.
“He hasn’t played for India for past one and half year and in the mean time consistently performed in domestic cricket,” the Indian skipper did not leave any room for guess work. Since he (Ishan) has been picked for World T20, he deserves to play ahead (of Shreyas). Had it been a question of batting slots Nos 4 or 5, it would have been a different question altogether. Unfortunately, Tilak isn’t there so Ishan is our best bet,” he added.
Coming back to the match, India have been asked to bat first after New Zealand won the toss. “We are going to bowl first. Looks like a pretty good wicket and looks pretty high-scoring. Last week was pretty special. Every team knows how hard it is to come to India and won but this is a fresh series and they are a tough team in home conditions. Great start for us in terms of prep for the World Cup. Three seamers. Clarke makes his debut, Jamieson and Duffy are playing as well,” Santner said at the toss.
Suryakumar also stated that he would have batted first too. “We were looking to bowl first because we felt there was dew around 8.30 during our practice. But we don’t mind putting runs on the board and we have done well batting first. Shreyas, Harshit, Bishnoi and Kuldeep are the ones who are missing out,” Suryakumar said.
India’s Playing XI:
Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand Playing XI:
Tim Robinson, Devon Conway (wk), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (c), Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duff