New Zealand in India 2025/26, IND vs NZ 5th T20I Match Preview

Big picture: Last match before World Cup

This is it. One last match before these teams go into the T20 World Cup. And the series is not even on the line. India, who are much closer to knowing their best XI, experimented much more in the last dead rubber when they played Harshit Rana at No. 7 and continued to rest Varun Chakravarthy.

New Zealand, still figuring out an ideal structure, working around injuries and availability of players, have no reason to experiment. The latest addition to their squad is Finn Allen, fresh off topping the charts at the BBL with 466 runs at 184.18. It is important they get him used to the conditions in India, where he has played only three T20Is and three ODIs three years ago.

While New Zealand work their way through these constraints, India will be desperate to see some runs against Sanju Samson‘s name. No better place to do it than a full house at his home ground in Trivandrum. India pivoted from Shubman Gill to Samson at the 11th hour because Gill was not getting runs; they won’t like his replacement to take the same boat into the tournament.

India LWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
New Zealand WLLLW

In the spotlight: Devon Conway and Ishan Kishan

Both Devon Conway and Ishan Kishan have the same two questions around them: do they play, and where do they bat if they do? Conway has opened for New Zealand in all four matches, but now that Allen is here, is there room for him and if yes, in which capacity? Kishan missed the last match with a niggle, but if he is good to go, do India even try to open with him and give Abhishek Sharma a rest?

Conway is in a position where he needs to provide the team management reasons to keep him in the XI. Kishan seems to be in such good hitting form that the Indian team management might be tempted to see what he does as an opener.

It seems India didn’t want to risk Axar Patel before the tournament, which might explain his absence for the last two matches, but we don’t know if they feel confident enough to bring him back for this match. We don’t know the nature of the niggle to Kishan but India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said that he would “very likely” play, though the physios will take the final call.

India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan/Shreyas Iyer, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Harshit Rana/Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy/Kuldeep Yadav

It will be interesting to see if New Zealand give James Neesham a game before the World Cup.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt.), 8 Zak Foulkes/James Neesham, 9 Michael Bracewell/ Ish Sodhi, 10 Kyle Jamieson/Matt Henry, 11 Jacob Duffy

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