India Playing XI vs New Zealand- 3rd ODI, New Zealand Tour of India 2026

India will take on New Zealand in the third of the three-match ODI series. This article provides details about India's Playing 11 vs New Zealand for the third match of the series.

India Playing XI vs New Zealand- 3rd ODI, New Zealand Tour of India 2026:

Openers: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma

As was the case in the previous series against South Africa, the Men in Blue find themself in a do-or-die situation with the series on the line, having lost the last game of the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand.

The home team was outplayed by the opposition in the batting department as the BlackCaps chased a target of 285 runs with ease, as compared to India, who found it difficult to tackle the Kiwi spinners in the middle phase of their batting innings.

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The team management would hope for the batters to be a bit more proactive than they were in the previous match.

The responsibility will be on the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman to play in an aggressive manner from the first ball on a pitch that is known to assist the batters.

Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy

The middle-order batters who will follow the openers would be itching to rectify the mistakes they made in Rajkot.

One such mistake was the rotation of strike or the lack of it against the Kiwi spinners, which resulted in the team failing to score an extra 10-15 runs while batting first, which could have made the difference.

Having said that, all wasn't loomy and gloomy for the home team as KL Rahul, who came in to bat at number five when India were in a bit of trouble, scored a fighting century to help India post a challenging total on the board.

Rahul would hope to keep up the good work at whatever number he bats in the next game and would also wish for the top four batters to give him a platform to capitalize on.

Bowlers: Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

If we talk about India's bowling attack for this particular match, it is expected to comprise the same names that took the field in the second ODI.

Having said that, the Indian bowlers would hope to deliver a better performance in the series decider in order to restrict an in-form batting lineup of New Zealand.

The likes of Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna were ineffective once the ball got old in the previous match, with the conditions also playing their part.

Other than the above mentioned names, all eyes will be on Ravindra Jadeja, who has been the talk of the town due to his lackluster performance with both bat and ball in the recent past, and the all rounder look to make a decisive contribution.

All things said, the bowlers would wish for the Indian captain to win the toss for them to get dry conditions to bowl and have their say in the game.