New Zealand National Cricket Team vs India National Cricket Team Match: India won the toss and chose to bowl first against New Zealand in the third and final one-day international at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on Sunday, January 19, 2026. The three-match series is level 1-1. India won the opening match in Baroda, while New Zealand replied with a win in Rajkot. The Indore match will decide the series. India made one change for the decider, bringing back left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh in place of Prasidh Krishna. Arshdeep had missed the previous two matches. New Zealand named the same XI that won in Rajkot.
India skipper Shubman Gill said the team decided to bowl first keeping the nature of the ground in mind. He said Indore is known for high-scoring games and felt chasing could be an advantage. “We're gonna bowl first. (On playing the series decider) That's what we spoke about, great challenge for us, New Zealand putting us under a bit of pressure, these are the moments that all the players wait for. (On this being a high-scoring ground) That is one of the factors why we decided to bowl first. I don't think there'll be much dew here, but looks like a pretty good surface and always good to have a score on the board and then try to chase it down. (Areas to improve) In the middle overs, we need to vary our lengths a little bit more and if we don't take wickets in the middle overs, it becomes very difficult to stop any target. So that will be one of the areas where we would be looking to improve. We've got one change, Arshdeep comes back in place of Prasidh,” Gill said.
New Zealand captain Michael Bracewell said his side would have preferred to bowl but was ready to adjust. He said the pitch looked good for batting and called the match a big chance for his team to win an ODI series in India. “We would have bowled first, but I think it looks like a good surface and I guess we're going to quickly shift to the mindset of batting first. That's right, it's a big exciting opportunity for us to win a series over here in one-day format. I think they've shown good temperament. They're getting used to international cricket and have made a good fist of it so far (on the new faces). With the series on the line you want to be able to do that stuff under pressure. So I'm looking forward to seeing how they go again tonight. No changes from the last game,” Bracewell said.
India are looking to seal the series at home, while New Zealand are aiming for a rare ODI series win in India.
India vs New Zealand 3rd ODI Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay (wk), Michael Bracewell (c), Zakary Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson, Kristian Clarke, Jayden Lennox.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.