Shreyas Iyer’s India field first in Wellington as NZ make three changes

India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to field in the third T20I against New Zealand at Wellington’s Hnry Stadium on Tuesday, 27 October. India lead the five-match series 2-0, so a win would clinch it with two games to spare.

New Zealand have made three changes. Captain Mitch Santner said Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Nathan Smith are out, with Matthew Fisher, Kyle Jamieson and Adam Milne coming in.

Team news

Henry has been ruled out of the rest of the series, while Ferguson is unavailable for Wellington as part of workload management.

India’s XI is Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav. Ishan Kishan is out of the match with a low-grade right adductor strain, and uncapped Kumar Kushagra remains with the squad as cover. India are also without Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya for the series.

How the series has gone

India won both earlier games in Christchurch by four wickets in the New Zealand vs India T20I Series 2026. On 22 October they reached 230/6 in 19.4 overs after New Zealand made 225/4. Two days later, on 24 October, India made 181/6 in 19.5 overs against New Zealand’s 180/5.

In T20I meetings overall, India have won 21 of 33, New Zealand 11, with one tie.

New Zealand’s innings

A live-score page shows New Zealand finished on 198/3 in 20 overs, with Daryl Mitchell unbeaten on 89 off 52 balls. That left India to chase 199. The match was still in progress when this was written.

What’s next

The fourth T20I is in Auckland on 30 October, starting at 12:30 PM IST, and the fifth is in Hamilton on 1 November at the same time. An ODI series follows, with the first match on 4 November at 7:30 AM IST.