After seven long days, Team India will finally be taking the field in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. A loss in their opening game against Pakistan and six days off have meant that many people have written off Virat Kohli and co just after their one game but the men in blue still start are one of the favourites because of the amount of experience they have in the team.
They face their nemesis in the ICC events, New Zealand. The Blackcaps have defeated India in their last games in the ICC matches across all formats. They came out on top in the ICC World T20 2016, they defeated India in the memorable semi-final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup and recently in the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.
Both India and New Zealand lost their first games to table-toppers Pakistan in Group 2 and lock horns in the virtual quarter-final as far as this group is concerned.
Head-to-head: 17 games; IND - 8, NZ - 8, NR - 1
India and New Zealand have faced each other 17 times in the T20Is since 2007, out of which two have been in the T20 World Cups and New Zealand have dominated winning both the games. Overall in 17 games between the two sides in T20Is, it is tied at both teams winning eight games each, with one game being abandoned due to rain in 2012 in Vizag.
The last time these two sides met was in February 2020 in the final game of the five-match series where India came out trumps winning the game by 7 runs owing to Rohit Sharma's knock of 60 runs off just 41 balls and thereby the series 5-0, which had two games going to super over.
Colin Munro leads the most runs list
Out-of-favour New Zealand opener Colin Munro is the leading run-scorer in IND vs NZ games with 426 runs to his name, followed by veteran Ross Taylor with 349 runs. Rohit Sharma is third on the list with 338 runs to his name in 13 games against the Blackcaps while NZ skipper Kane Williamson follows him with 325 runs. Virat Kohli is fifth on the list with 302 runs against New Zealand in 9 T20Is.
Ish Sodhi is the leading wicket-taker
New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi is the leading wicket-taker in IND vs NZ T20 games with 17 scalps in 12 matches. All-rounder Mitchell Santner is second on the list with 12 wickets while Jasprit Bumrah and tim Southee have 10 wickets each in this particular fixture.
