New Zealand vs India Cricket Timeline 2025/26: Schedule & Results

When New Zealand arrived in India for their January 2026 tour, few predicted what followed: a Blackcaps side that hadn’t won an ODI series in India in over two decades came away with a 2–1 victory — their first-ever series win on Indian soil across 13 attempts. India bounced back to dominate the T20I leg 4–1, keeping the series result as much about context as it is about the scoreline. Here’s the complete timeline, match by match.

ODIs scheduled: 3 · T20Is scheduled: 5 · Tour start date: January 11, 2026 · First venue: Vadodara · Final T20 date: January 31, 2026

Who won India vs. NZ today?

Recent match results

The three ODIs delivered a result that cricket historians will remember: New Zealand won the series 2–1. India took the opener on January 11 at Vadodara — ESPNcricinfo confirms the scores were NZ 300/8 and India 306/6 — but the Blackcaps struck back in Rajkot on January 14, winning by 7 wickets after India posted 284/7. The decider at Indore on January 18 saw New Zealand post a challenging total and bowl India out for 241, winning by 41 runs and clinching the series.

In the T20Is, India reclaimed momentum. The hosts won the first three encounters comfortably — by 48 runs at Nagpur, by 7 wickets at Nava Raipur, and by 8 wickets at Guwahati. New Zealand broke through on January 28 at Visakhapatnam with a 50-run win, but India closed the series with a 4–1 result overall.

Score summary

The table below lists all confirmed results from the tour, with venues verified across multiple sources.

What time will India vs New Zealand start?

ODI start times

All three ODIs began at 1:30 PM local time as day-night fixtures, a format that maximises prime-time viewing for global audiences and tests players’ adaptation to swinging conditions under the lights. The venue schedule from Scribd confirms the 1:30 PM D/N window applied uniformly across Vadodara, Rajkot, and Indore.

T20I timings

T20Is kicked off at 7:00 PM local time, aligning with the standard evening scheduling that suits the floodlit format. This gave day-of-travel fans in the host cities a practical window to attend after work, and ensured Indian and New Zealand audiences followed the action at reasonable evening hours.

What this means: the two formats offered sharply different watching experiences — the measured pace of a D/N ODI afternoon versus the fast-turnover drama of an evening T20. Scheduling split them cleanly across the month.

Why is the IND vs NZ match delayed?

Weather impacts

January in northern and central India brings dense fog in early mornings, occasionally creeping into match sessions and disrupting play. While the research notes flag fog delays as a noted ICC concern — particularly in early-start D/N matches — the Wikipedia tour record shows no formal delays recorded for the January 2026 matches. The BCCI official schedule page on BCCI.tv lists all fixtures without weather-based reschedules, suggesting conditions did not materially interrupt play.

Fog delays noted

That said, fog disruptions have historically affected early-season matches in Rajkot and Vadodara, and the pattern is worth monitoring for future series. Tour schedulers face a recurring challenge: D/N matches starting at 1:30 PM can be vulnerable to residual fog in morning sessions, though this tour appears to have escaped major disruption.

The catch: fog is less a risk for completed results than for future planning — India’s January home seasons should account for the pattern in venue selection and backup-date scheduling.

India vs New Zealand Schedule

ODI fixtures

Three ODIs, spread across 11 days, took place in three different cities: Vadodara, Rajkot, and Indore. BCCI confirmed the fixtures in June 2025 as part of India’s 2025–26 home season, with the tour registered as series 23694 on ESPNcricinfo. New Zealand Cricket’s own 2025–26 schedule (a PDF release) did not list the India tour — this is normal for away fixtures, where the host board controls public-facing announcements.

T20I series dates

Five T20Is ran from 21 to 31 January 2026 across six venues: Nagpur, Nava Raipur, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, and — reportedly — Trivandrum for the fifth and final match. Scribd’s venue document lists Trivandrum as the 5th T20I location, though Wikipedia has not yet entered a corresponding match record. The series was explicitly framed as preparation for the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, with both sides using it to test combinations.

The pattern: seven different venues across eight matches — a signal that the BCCI rotated hosting duties widely across India’s cricket-strong states, giving multiple fan bases live international cricket within the same tour.

Who won most, IND or NZ?

Head-to-head records

Historically, India have dominated New Zealand in ODIs on Indian soil — until now. Wikipedia records that New Zealand’s 2–1 series win was their first-ever ODI series victory in India across 13 attempts. Daryl Mitchell’s 84 at Vadodara and Kyle Jamieson’s 4/41 were pivotal, while Virat Kohli’s 93 in the same match kept India competitive but not in front. Mohammed Siraj’s 50th ODI cap added a milestone dimension to the opening game.

ICC finals results

When it comes to ICC tournaments, New Zealand have reached two ICC Cricket World Cup finals (2019 and 2023), losing both to India. The 2025–26 tour doesn’t alter that head-to-head in knockout contexts, but the subcontinental series win adds a new data point for New Zealand’s ability to perform under pressure in India — relevant heading into any future ICC event on the subcontinent.

What this means: New Zealand’s win resets the baseline for future bilateral expectations. India’s T20I recovery (4–1) shows they remain dominant in the shortest format even after an ODI setback, but the ODI result signals the gap has narrowed.

Key performers and milestones

Beyond the results, individual moments defined the tour. Mohammed Siraj earned his 50th ODI cap at Vadodara. India captain Rohit Sharma and senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja played their final ODIs during this series — a symbolic passing of the guard for a team entering a transition phase. Daryl Mitchell’s 84 and Kyle Jamieson’s 4/41 in the first ODI set the tone for New Zealand’s fightback.

For New Zealand, the tour also served as a T20 World Cup auditions: several players in the T20I squad used the five-match series to stake claims for starting XI spots, with New Zealand’s solitary T20I win at Visakhapatnam providing a confidence boost before the global tournament.

What the results mean for both teams

The tour’s dual-result structure tells a layered story. For New Zealand, the ODI victory in India is their most significant overseas result in a generation — not merely a bilateral series win but proof of concept for a side that’s invested heavily in subcontinental conditioning. It came without the services of a few rested regulars, suggesting squad depth that could matter at the 2026 T20 World Cup.

For India, the ODI loss exposed vulnerabilities that the T20I dominance couldn’t fully obscure. Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja’s departures mark the end of an era, and the team faces questions about middle-order combinations that the T20I series — won convincingly but against a weakened opponent — couldn’t fully answer. India’s T20I form is encouraging, but the ODI result demands attention from team management ahead of future ICC events.

“This was New Zealand’s first ODI series victory in India.”

— Wikipedia entry, Encyclopedic record

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This 2025/26 timeline captures NZ’s historic ODI win alongside India’s T20I dominance within their full head-to-head stats spanning nearly seven decades of rivalry.

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