{"id":811698,"date":"2026-10-23T20:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811698\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T20:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:06:15","slug":"2nd-t20i-preview-india-nz-return-to-hagley-oval-chasing-more-runs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811698\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd T20I preview: India, NZ return to Hagley Oval chasing more runs"},"content":{"rendered":"

New country, same task. India carried the run-rich theme of the West Indies series into the southern hemisphere, pipping New Zealand in a 225 vs 230 opener<\/a>. Fortunately for the tourists, who are switching venues almost every other day, Hagley Oval will host the second T20I as well. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to forget the jet lag,\u201d Shreyas Iyer quipped after the first working day of a long tour. Some of that recovery would hopefully happen before they switch from South to North Island.<\/p>\n

Even in their opening defeat, New Zealand had plenty of positives. A quick opening stand, Glenn Phillips\u2019s rapid gear switching and Bevon Jacobs\u2019s fierce cameo all combined to make a meaty total. Then, they did well to claw back after India\u2019s opening blitz. The chase could well have derailed, but Naman Dhir\u2019s late blitz scuppered the hosts\u2019 closing act.<\/p>\n

Phillips recited the English alphabet from C to J when describing their alternative plans to counter India\u2019s batting, particularly in the Powerplay. In hindsight, that jarringly stood out as a phase of improvement for New Zealand. As did their fielding, even if a peeved Phillips couldn\u2019t come to a consensus with a journalist over the exact number of dropped catches.<\/p>\n

When: New Zealand vs India, 2nd T20I, October 24, 8pm local time<\/p>\n

Where: Hagley Oval, Christchurch<\/p>\n

What to expect: Given the dimensions, a 455-run aggregate wasn\u2019t entirely expected, but it\u2019s likely to play out the same way in the second game too. The second match begins at 8pm as well, in nippy weather (temperature usually falls under 20\u2019C during match time), with dew coming in quickly. Iyer noted the surface played out a bit slow to start with, before becoming flatter. Sanju Samson also pointed out that there was plenty of swing to start with, but the ball nicely came off the surface. It\u2019s the early movement seamers from both sides would want to capitalise on.<\/p>\n

Team news<\/p>\n

India<\/p>\n

Ishan Kishan has been ruled out of the second game<\/a> due to a \u201clow-grade, right adductor strain\u201d, which could lead to a shuffle of the batting order. That was why Tilak Varma was promoted to three: India could keep the same top three and bring in Shivam Dube to bolster the middle order. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a higher likelihood of fielding Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, an option the batting coach Sitanshu Kotak hinted<\/a> at ahead of the second game. The 15-year-old prodigy featured at the Asian Games but hasn\u2019t been in their first-choice plans yet. If they do play him, one of Samson or Abhishek Sharma will have to drop to No.3, unless they give Sooryavanshi a non-opener\u2019s role, something which he hasn\u2019t done yet in his 42-match T20 career.<\/p>\n

With Kishan out of the second gane, Kumar Kushagra has been added as cover for Kishan.<\/p>\n

Predicted XI: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi\/Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav<\/p>\n

New Zealand<\/p>\n

With no immediate concerns, the hosts wouldn\u2019t want to make any knee-jerk changes. After the game, Phillips spoke about their rich fast-bowling depth, calling it a \u201cgreat problem to have\u201d. That rotation of those riches could kick in later in the series.<\/p>\n

Matt Henry and Adam Milne went for plenty with the new ball, but if New Zealand do plan to rejig \u2013 now or later \u2013 they have the option of bringing in Kyle Jamieson or Jacob Duffy into the mix. Phillips counted himself out as a bowling option in the opener, which suggests they are happy continuing with the division of spin responsibilities between Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell.<\/p>\n

Predicted XI: Tim Seifert (wk), Finn Allen, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson<\/p>\n

Did you know?<\/p>\n

– India have now chased down 200+ men\u2019s T20I totals seven times, joint-most with Australia<\/p>\n

– Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has the best strike-rate (214.83) in men\u2019s T20 cricket (min. 1000 runs)<\/p>\n

– Samson-Abhishek and Allen-Seifert form the two best T20I opening pairs in terms of scoring rate, with run-rates of 11.45 and 11.28 respectively, the highest among all pairs with 15+ innings<\/p>\n

What they said<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start, I felt there was a lot of hype that he (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi) should play. I genuinely felt that such hype is not good for a player as well, for a young 15\/16-year-old boy, that everyone is saying that he should play, and he is not getting a place\u201d \u2013 India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak feels Sooryavanshi has matured over time, and understands the value of waiting for his spot<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys at the IPL last year probably got sick of me spending an hour batting and then 45 minutes batting left-handed as well,\u201d New Zealand\u2019s Glenn Phillips, when describing the work behind that switch hit, the product of a whole year of extra practice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New country, same task. India carried the run-rich theme of the West Indies series into the southern hemisphere,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[99429,1721,260761,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-811698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-2nd-t20i","tag-cricket","tag-india-tour-of-new-zealand-2026","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}