India’s T20I captain Shreyas Iyer said the players do not have to adapt much to the New Zealand conditions, having experienced them during the previous tour. The New Zealand pitches are known to be conducive to seam and swing bowling, and the batters will have their work cut out.
India will start their tour with five T20Is against the hosts, starting Thursday. Indian players have the experience of playing all across the globe, with regular A-team tours.
“I have also come here before, and it is not like these are completely different conditions. But if we look at the England series, they prepared wickets according to our batting style. Right now, no one knows how the wicket is going to be. So, we will try to acclimatise as soon as possible. After we have a good practice session, every individual will have a fair idea about how to plan,” Shreyas Iyer said during the pre-series press conference before the first T20I (via RevSportz).
Earlier, India lost the T20I series against Ireland and England under Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy as the players failed to adjust to the English conditions after IPL 2026.
Iyer admitted that the team is used to hectic scheduling, as they have traveled to New Zealand right after the series against the West Indies.
“We have done that in the past, after finishing the Afghanistan series, we went to Japan and got more matches in between. But it’s fun at the same time, to be travelling, playing and getting accustomed to new conditions. Well, we just want to put the reasons aside and see to it how we would be planning to win, that is the chat going on inside the dressing room. I feel that every team would be having that sort of plan. So, coming here, we also had the same mentality, and got great motivation from the Māori people,” Shreyas Iyer said.
The first T20I between India and New Zealand will be played on Thursday.
