Sooryavanshi in line to open as India chase 2-0 lead in Christchurch without Kishan

India will try to go 2-0 up in their five-match T20 series against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Saturday, and they will do it with a teenager at the top of the order. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, is expected to come in for the injured Ishan Kishan, who strained his groin in Thursday’s four-wicket win.

The toss in Christchurch is at 12 noon IST and the first ball at 12:30 pm. The match is on the Sony Sports Network and streams on SonyLIV.

A reshuffle at the top

Kishan’s injury forces Shreyas Iyer’s first real selection call of the tour. The expected answer is to send Sooryavanshi out with Abhishek Sharma and move Sanju Samson, who made 67 off 33 balls in the opener, down to No. 3.

Sooryavanshi has played eight T20Is in 2026, all of them abroad, in England, Zimbabwe and Japan. He has yet to play an international match at home. Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, speaking about him this week, said: “He is very talented and I believe he has a bright, bright future ahead.”

Abhishek arrives as the format’s most destructive opener on paper, with a strike rate of 194.62, the best among batters with at least 500 T20I runs. Samson has 770 runs in T20Is this year at an average of 30.80. In the first match the openers put on 93 in 35 balls, which is how India chased 226 with two balls to spare.

The bowling question

The batting is not where India’s problems lie. They have conceded 200 or more in each of their last four completed games, and New Zealand’s 225 for four on Thursday was the hosts’ highest T20I total at home. Glenn Phillips hammered 82 not out off 40 balls, and India gave away 94 runs in the powerplay.

That has raised the prospect of Varun Chakravarthy coming in for one of the seamers, Arshdeep Singh or Mayank Yadav. New Zealand’s spinners did well in the second innings on Thursday, with captain Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell taking two wickets each, and the mystery spinner would give Iyer a different kind of option through the middle overs.

New Zealand are unlikely to change their side. Santner took a heavy blow to the head attempting a catch in the first game but came back to finish his overs. Phillips said afterwards that his side had to tighten up their fielding and their bowling in the middle overs quickly.

The record and the road ahead

India have the better of this rivalry in the shortest format. Of 32 completed T20Is between the sides, India have won 20 and New Zealand 11, with one tie, and India beat New Zealand in the final of this year’s T20 World Cup. In New Zealand, though, India’s record is even: they have won two of their four T20I series there and lost two.

Hagley Oval was a batting paradise on Thursday, and another high-scoring night is expected. After Saturday the series moves to Wellington on 27 October, Eden Park in Auckland on 30 October and Seddon Park in Hamilton on 1 November.