India play twelve matches in New Zealand between 22 October and 1 December 2026 — five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests. It is the largest inbound international series New Zealand Cricket has ever hosted, and only the third time India have toured there across all three formats, after 2008-09 and 2019-20.
It also arrives two years after New Zealand did something no side had managed in the history of Test cricket in India: a 3-0 whitewash on Indian soil.
The full schedule
All times below are IST, which is what matters if you are watching from India. New Zealand is 7 hours 30 minutes ahead.
Twenty20 internationals
| # | Date | Venue | Start (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st T20I | Thursday 22 October 2026 | Christchurch | 12:30 PM |
| 2nd T20I | Saturday 24 October 2026 | Christchurch | 12:30 PM |
| 3rd T20I | Tuesday 27 October 2026 | Wellington | 12:30 PM |
| 4th T20I | Friday 30 October 2026 | Auckland | 12:30 PM |
| 5th T20I | Sunday 1 November 2026 | Hamilton | 12:30 PM |
One-day internationals
| # | Date | Venue | Start (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st ODI | Wednesday 4 November 2026 | Auckland | 7:30 AM |
| 2nd ODI | Saturday 7 November 2026 | Wellington | 7:30 AM |
| 3rd ODI | Tuesday 10 November 2026 | Hamilton | 7:30 AM |
| 4th ODI | Friday 13 November 2026 | Mount Maunganui | 7:30 AM |
| 5th ODI | Sunday 15 November 2026 | Mount Maunganui | 7:30 AM |
Tests
| # | Dates | Venue | Start (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Test | 19–23 November 2026 | Wellington | 3:30 AM |
| 2nd Test | 27 November – 1 December 2026 | Christchurch | 3:30 AM |
The timings are the first thing to understand
Overseas tours are usually described as convenient or inconvenient as a whole. This one is genuinely different depending on the format, and the gap is large.
| Format | IST start | What that means in India |
|---|---|---|
| T20I | 12:30 PM | Lunchtime — the most watchable overseas cricket of the year |
| ODI | 7:30 AM | Early morning, running into the afternoon |
| Test | 3:30 AM | Overnight — the hardest watch on the calendar |
The T20Is are the pick of it by a distance. A 12:30 PM start is a lunchtime fixture, which is close to ideal — and unusual for a tour of New Zealand, where the time difference normally pushes everything into the small hours.
The Tests are the opposite. A 3:30 AM start means the first session is over before most of India wakes up, and by the time the working day begins the match is at tea. Anyone planning to follow the red-ball leg properly should plan around the second and third sessions rather than the start of play.
The 2024 whitewash still frames this tour
In October and November 2024, New Zealand toured India for three Tests and won all three.
| Test | Venue | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bengaluru | New Zealand won by 8 wickets |
| 2nd | Pune | New Zealand won by 113 runs |
| 3rd | Mumbai (Wankhede) | New Zealand won by 25 runs |
The records that fell were substantial. It was the first time any visiting side had whitewashed India 3-0 in a Test series in India. It was New Zealand’s first Test series win in India in 69 years. It ended India’s run of home series victories stretching back twelve years, and it was India’s first home whitewash in twenty-four.
That is the backdrop to a two-Test series in New Zealand’s own conditions. We are not drawing a conclusion from it — no page on this site forecasts anything — but it is the single most relevant piece of recent history between these sides, and any preview that omits it is not telling you much.
Head-to-head: the full picture
| Format | Played | India won | New Zealand won | Drawn / no result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 66 | 22 | 16 | 28 |
| ODIs | 124 | 63 | 52 | 9 |
| T20Is | 32 | 17 | 11 | 4 |
India lead in all three formats, and none of the margins are commanding. The Test column is the interesting one: 28 of 66 Tests have been drawn — well over a third, a far higher proportion than India’s record against Australia or England, and a reflection of how often weather intervenes in New Zealand.
The ODI record at 63-52 across 124 matches is closer than India’s recent form suggests, and the T20I record at 17-11 is the narrowest lead of the three in percentage terms once no-results are set aside.
India’s history in New Zealand
The 1968 tour is the one worth knowing about, because of what it started.
India won that four-Test series 3-1, and it was India’s first Test series victory anywhere outside India. The first Test at Dunedin produced India’s first overseas Test win. For a side that had been playing Test cricket since 1932, it took thirty-six years to win a series away from home — and New Zealand is where it happened.
Since then the record has been mixed. India have toured in all formats only twice more, in 2008-09 and 2019-20, and New Zealand’s conditions — seam movement, wind, and pitches that behave differently from anything in Asia — have consistently been among the harder assignments for Indian touring sides.
The World Test Championship angle
The two Tests fall inside the 2025-27 WTC cycle, which closes in January 2027. Both sides have something riding on them.
| Pos | Team | M | W | L | D | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 87.50 |
| 2 | South Africa | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 75.00 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 72.22 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 58.33 |
| 5 | India | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 48.15 |
New Zealand sit third on 72.22% from six matches. India are fifth on 48.15% from nine. Each Test is worth 12 points, so this series carries 24 — and for India it is the warm-up to the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series that carries 60 more. Our Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2027 preview covers that.
For New Zealand, a strong result here would consolidate a genuine position near the top of the table. For India, two Tests in seaming conditions is a difficult place to repair a percentage.
The venues
| Venue | City | Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Hagley Oval | Christchurch | 1st and 2nd T20I; 2nd Test |
| Sky Stadium | Wellington | 3rd T20I; 2nd ODI; 1st Test |
| Eden Park | Auckland | 4th T20I; 1st ODI |
| Seddon Park | Hamilton | 5th T20I; 3rd ODI |
| Bay Oval | Mount Maunganui | 4th and 5th ODI |
Five venues across twelve matches, with Christchurch and Wellington each hosting a Test alongside white-ball fixtures.
Eden Park in Auckland is the one that produces unusual cricket. It is primarily a rugby ground, and its straight boundaries are famously short — among the shortest used in international cricket — which historically makes it a high-scoring venue for T20. Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui hosts back-to-back ODIs to close that leg, which is a compact arrangement that reduces travel at the end of a long tour.
Conditions from late October to December
This is late spring into early summer in New Zealand, and it is not the settled weather of January and February.
- Seam movement is the defining feature of New Zealand conditions, more so than pace or bounce.
- Wind is a genuine factor, particularly at Wellington, where it affects both bowling and the ball in the air.
- Rain interruptions are realistic in this window — which is part of why so many India-New Zealand Tests have been drawn.
- The Kookaburra ball behaves differently from the SG ball used in India, swinging early and going soft sooner.
- Daylight is long by late November, which helps a five-day Test reach a result.
- Pitches vary by venue more than in most countries; Hagley Oval has historically offered the most for seam.
A crowded few weeks for India
The scheduling here is worth flagging, because it is tight to the point of being awkward.
| Dates | Fixture | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Sep – 17 Oct 2026 | West Indies — 3 ODIs, 5 T20Is | Home |
| 22 Oct – 1 Dec 2026 | New Zealand — 5 T20Is, 5 ODIs, 2 Tests | Away |
| 13–27 Dec 2026 | Sri Lanka — 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is | Home |
| 3–9 Jan 2027 | Zimbabwe — 3 ODIs | Home |
| 21 Jan – 3 Mar 2027 | Australia — 5 Tests | Home |
India finish a home series against West Indies on 17 October and start a T20I in Christchurch on 22 October — five days, including travel to the other side of the world. Twelve days after the New Zealand tour ends, they are back home against Sri Lanka.
Squad rotation across formats is not merely likely here, it is close to unavoidable. Our India home season 2026-27 guide and West Indies tour preview cover the home fixtures either side of this tour, and the India cricket schedule guide explains how the calendar ends up shaped this way.
Why twelve matches?
Twelve internationals in a single inbound series is a lot, and New Zealand Cricket has described it as the largest it has hosted.
The commercial logic is straightforward: an India tour is the most valuable inbound series any board can schedule, because of broadcast revenue and the size of the audience following from India and the diaspora. Extending it to five T20Is and five ODIs rather than the usual three of each is a revenue decision as much as a cricketing one.
The cricketing consequence is that the white-ball legs are long enough to look at players properly. Ten white-ball matches before a two-Test series gives both sides an unusually large sample in the shorter formats, which is not typical of a modern tour.
What we do not publish
No odds, tips, predictions or win probabilities — here or anywhere on this site. Squads had not been named at the time of writing, and any XI you see this far out is speculation.
What we publish is what can be checked: fixture dates and IST start times from the official series listing, head-to-head records taken from match-by-match data, and standings as they currently sit.
Fixture dates and venues for this tour are published by New Zealand Cricket as hosts and by the BCCI on the India side. Touring schedules move more often than home ones, so confirm against those before booking anything around a match.
The short version
India play five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests in New Zealand from 22 October to 1 December 2026 — twelve matches across Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Mount Maunganui, and the largest inbound series New Zealand Cricket has hosted.
Timings split sharply: T20Is at 12:30 PM IST are the most watchable overseas cricket of the year, ODIs are a 7:30 AM start, and the Tests begin at 3:30 AM IST. India lead the head-to-head in all three formats — Tests 22-16 from 66, ODIs 63-52 from 124, T20Is 17-11 from 32 — though 28 of those Tests were drawn.
The context is impossible to ignore: New Zealand whitewashed India 3-0 in India in 2024, the first side ever to do so, and their first series win there in 69 years. Both Tests count towards a WTC cycle in which New Zealand sit third on 72.22% and India fifth on 48.15%. See our Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2027 preview, 2027 ODI World Cup guide and cricket betting ID page for more.
Why so many India–New Zealand Tests end in draws
Twenty-eight draws from sixty-six Tests is a striking proportion — more than one in three — and it is not an accident of scheduling.
- Weather. New Zealand’s Test windows sit in changeable seasons, and lost sessions accumulate quickly across a two- or three-match series.
- Short series. Two-Test tours have been the norm between these sides, which reduces the number of matches that reach a natural conclusion.
- Historically flat Indian surfaces. For long periods, Tests in India against New Zealand were played on pitches that did not deteriorate quickly.
- Rain-affected finishes at Wellington in particular, where the wind and weather can remove a session at short notice.
- Fewer fixtures overall. Sixty-six Tests across decades is far fewer than India have played against England or Australia.
The practical implication for the World Test Championship is significant. A draw earns 4 points of a possible 12 — a third of a win — so a rain-affected two-Test series can leave both sides worse off in percentage terms than they started. In a cycle where India sit on 48.15%, that is not a neutral outcome.
The white-ball legs and the 2027 World Cup
Five ODIs is a substantial series, and it lands in a useful window.
India have already secured direct qualification for the 2027 ODI World Cup as one of the eight highest-ranked sides at the 30 September 2026 cut-off, so nothing on this tour changes their entry. New Zealand are also through. What the series does offer is ten white-ball matches against a strong opponent roughly eleven months before that tournament begins in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Conditions are the obvious caveat. New Zealand in November and southern Africa the following October are not similar environments, and preparation value should not be overstated. Our 2027 ODI World Cup guide covers the tournament, its Super 7 format and the qualification picture in full.
Following the tour sensibly
- Build around the T20Is. At 12:30 PM IST they are the easiest overseas cricket of the year to watch live.
- Treat the ODIs as a morning fixture. A 7:30 AM start finishes in the early afternoon in India.
- For the Tests, follow sessions two and three. Play begins at 3:30 AM IST; the middle and final sessions fall in the Indian morning.
- Expect weather interruptions and check before committing to a full day.
- Note the back-to-back ODIs at Mount Maunganui on 13 and 15 November.
- Confirm broadcast arrangements against the official listing rather than assuming.
What the individual market names mean, if you follow the cricket that way, is set out in our cricket markets guide — though as everywhere on this site, we explain how markets work and never what to do with them.
Two Tests is a short series for a hard tour
It is worth naming the structural point. A two-Test series in seaming conditions gives a touring side almost no room to adjust.
Sides arriving in New Zealand typically need a match to calibrate to the Kookaburra ball, the pace of the surfaces and the wind. In a five-Test series that learning happens and there is still time to use it. In a two-Test series it can consume half the contest, which is one reason short away series tend to favour the home side more than their overall record suggests.
The counterweight is that India arrive having played ten white-ball matches in the same country over the preceding month. That is far more acclimatisation than a touring Test side normally gets, even if the formats differ — the light, the air and the grounds will at least be familiar.
This is an editorial preview from the team at Readdy Anna Cricket. It covers schedules, venues, standings and records only — we do not publish odds, tips, predictions or win probabilities. Fixtures can change; confirm against the official source before planning around them. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state — check the rules where you live. Free confidential support is listed on our responsible gaming page.