India fly out for six-week New Zealand tour; Tilak, Nitish and Siraj carry the Telugu flag

India’s Twenty20 squad set off for New Zealand on Monday, 19 October, at the start of a New Zealand tour that will keep the national team there for about six weeks and across all three formats. The Board of Control for Cricket in India posted pictures of the players at the airport and inside the aircraft, with Abhishek Sharma, Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh among those seen.

The opening T20I is on Thursday, 22 October, at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, which also stages the second match on 24 October. The series then moves to Wellington on 27 October, Auckland on 30 October and Hamilton on 1 November. All five games are evening fixtures in New Zealand and start at 12.30 pm Indian time.

The Telugu contingent

Shreyas Iyer captains the 16-man T20I group and Hyderabad left-hander Tilak Varma has been named vice-captain, a sign of how central the 23-year-old has become to the short-format batting order. Tilak is also part of the squad for the last two ODIs.

Andhra all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is one of the few players selected for every leg of the trip: he features in the T20I squad, in both ODI groups and in the Test party, where his seam bowling and lower-order batting give the selectors balance. Hyderabad fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, not part of the T20I plans, is in both ODI squads and the Test squad, so he is set for the 50-over and red-ball legs of the tour.

The rest of the T20I squad includes Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan as wicketkeepers, teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shivam Dube, Naman Dhir, the spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy, and a pace group of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav alongside Arshdeep.

ODIs and Tests to follow

Once the T20Is are done, the focus shifts to five one-day internationals: Auckland on 4 November, Wellington on 7 November, Hamilton on 10 November and Mount Maunganui on 13 and 15 November. Shubman Gill leads in the first three matches, with Iyer taking over for the final two. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are named for the whole ODI series. The one-dayers begin at 7.30 am Indian time.

The tour closes with two Tests under Gill, at Wellington from 19 November and at Christchurch from 27 November, each starting at 3.30 am Indian time. That Test squad, which we reported on separately, marks Jasprit Bumrah’s return and includes Rishabh Pant subject to fitness clearance.

For Telugu fans, the next six weeks offer an unusually full picture: Tilak in a leadership role in the T20Is, Nitish tested in every format, and Siraj back in the pace attack for the ODIs and Tests.

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