On Tuesday, October 6, the Indian Men’s Selection Committee announced India and India A squads for the upcoming tour of New Zealand. India will play five T20Is, while India A will play three Multi-Day matches against New Zealand A.
Bhuvneshwar, who last played for India in a T20I in November 2022, returned to the Indian squad after picking up 28 wickets in 16 outings in the IPL 2026 season. The medium-pacer has played 87 T20Is, picking up 90 wickets at an average of 23.10 and an economy rate of 6.96.
On the other hand, Varun Chakravarthy also returned, having recovered from a side strain suffered during the T20I series against Afghanistan in September, which ruled him out of the one-off game against Japan and the Asian Games 2026. Ravi Bishnoi has been dropped from the squad.
India T20I Squad vs NZ: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson [WK], Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav
New Zealand vs India T20I series schedule
Thursday, October 22 – First T20I, Christchurch
Saturday, October 24 – Second T20I, Christchurch
Tuesday, October 27 – Third T20I, Wellington
Friday, October 30 – Fourth T20I, Auckland
Sunday, November 1 – Fifth T20I, Hamilton
Meanwhile, Dhruv Jurel will lead the India A squad that will play three multi-day games against New Zealand A. Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Washington Sundar and Sai Sudharsan are among the big names selected.
India A multi-day squad vs NZ A: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Smaran, Rishabh Pant* [WK], Dhruv Jurel [C] [WK], Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sai Sudarsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar
Note: * Subject to fitness
New Zealand A vs India A Multi-Day series schedule
October 24 to October 27 – First Multi-Day, Lincoln
October 31 to November 3 – Second Multi-Day, Christchurch
November 7 to November 10 – Third Multi-Day, Lincoln
