October 16, 2024. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. India, at home, in front of a full house, on a pitch they prepared, bat first. Matt Henry runs in. First over. First ball of any significance and India’s top order starts falling.
By the 31st over, India are all out for 46. Not 46/5. Not 46/8. 46 all out. India’s lowest Test total on home soil in their entire history. Henry finishes with 5/15. New Zealand, who arrived in India with nobody backing them to win even one Test, go on to win the series 3-0 the first team in history to whitewash India 3-0 at home in a series of three or more Tests.
Then, three months later, in January 2026, New Zealand tour India again this time for white-ball cricket. And they win the ODI series 2-1. New Zealand’s first-ever bilateral ODI series win on Indian soil in their 37th year of playing bilaterals in India. And then, two months after that, India beat New Zealand by 96 runs in the T20 World Cup 2026 Final in Ahmedabad to defend their title.
This rivalry has no clean narrative. It has layers. And each layer is more interesting than the last.
Head-to-Head Snapshot: NZ vs India Across All Formats (2026)
| Format | Matches | India Wins | NZ Wins | Draws/Ties/NR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 65 | 22 | 16 | 27 |
| ODIs | 123 | 63 | 52 | 8 |
| T20Is | 31 | 19 | 11 | 1 |
| Overall | 219 | 104 | 79 | 36 |
India lead in all three formats. But the margins, particularly in Tests (22-16) and T20Is (19-11), are not as commanding as India’s status as the world’s dominant cricket nation would suggest.
New Zealand’s 16 Test wins against India include 3 wins in India (all in 2024). Their ODI win-rate against India (52 from 123, or 42%) is higher than their win-rate against any other top-four Test nation. New Zealand punch above their weight specifically against India it is not random.
Test Series History: Full Timeline (1955–2024)
| Year | Host | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1955-56 | India | India 2-0 |
| 1964-65 | India | India 1-0 (3 draws) |
| 1967-68 | New Zealand | India 3-1 |
| 1969-70 | India | Draw 1-1 |
| 1975-76 | New Zealand | Draw 1-1 |
| 1976-77 | India | India 2-0 |
| 1980-81 | New Zealand | NZ 1-0 |
| 1988-89 | India | India 2-1 |
| 1989-90 | New Zealand | NZ 1-0 |
| 1993-94 | New Zealand | Draw |
| 1995-96 | India | India 1-0 |
| 1998-99 | New Zealand | NZ 1-0 |
| 1999-00 | India | India 1-0 |
| 2002-03 | New Zealand | NZ 2-0 |
| 2003-04 | India | Draw |
| 2008-09 | New Zealand | India 1-0 |
| 2009-10 | India | India 1-0 |
| 2012 | India | India 2-0 |
| 2013-14 | New Zealand | NZ 1-0 |
| 2016-17 | India | India 3-0 |
| 2019-20 | New Zealand | NZ 2-0 |
| 2021 (WTC Final, England) | Neutral | NZ 1-0 |
| 2021-22 | India | India 1-0 (1 draw) |
| 2024-25 | India | NZ 3-0 |
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New Zealand have won Test series in India in 1980-81 and 2024-25 44 years apart. The 2024 win wasn’t a fluke preceded by decades of failure. It was the second time New Zealand had won on Indian soil: it just took longer than it should have for the cricket world to realise New Zealand had been capable of it all along.
Phase 1: The Quiet Years (1955–2000)
1955: First Test, First Draw
India and New Zealand played their first Test match in 1955 in Hyderabad. It ended in a draw, as did three of the five Tests in that series. India won the series 2-0.
New Zealand were one of world cricket’s weakest sides in the 1950s–1970s, playing home conditions well but struggling abroad. India were a mid-tier Test nation themselves the two teams’ early meetings had more in common with competitive practice than a serious rivalry.
The fact that New Zealand won their first bilateral ODI series against India back in 1975-76. when New Zealand cricket was globally considered an afterthought says everything about how this rivalry has always been more competitive than India’s all-time lead suggests.
1975 and 1979 World Cup: NZ’s First ODI Wins
New Zealand beat India in the 1975 ODI World Cup (Glenn Turner 114*) and again in 1979.
India did not beat New Zealand in a World Cup match until the 1987 ODI World Cup. 12 years after their first meeting.
The World Cup head-to-head between these two sides is effectively level over 50 years: 5 wins each. That parity hidden behind India’s dominant bilateral record tells you where New Zealand’s real competitive edge lies: in tournaments, under pressure, in conditions away from the subcontinent.
Phase 2: ICC Tournaments: New Zealand’s Knockout Advantage
2019 ODI World Cup Semi-Final, Manchester: India’s Darkest ODI Moment
July 9-10, 2019. Emirates Old Trafford. Rain delays play by a full day. India come in as table-toppers. New Zealand, ranked lower, show no indication of being nervous.
Scorecard:
- New Zealand: 239/8 in 50 overs (Taylor 74, Williamson 67; Jadeja 2/34, Bumrah 2/43)
- India: 221/10 in 49.3 overs (Jadeja 77, Dhoni 50; Henry 3/37, Boult 2/42)
- New Zealand win by 18 runs.
India were 5/3 inside the powerplay Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul all gone cheaply. The match appeared over before it started.
But here’s what most people misread about this game: India were still alive at the start of the 47th over. Jadeja and Dhoni combined experience of 500+ ODIs needed 71 from 9 overs. Jadeja was hitting sixes. Dhoni was running hard. And then Guptill’s direct-hit run-out ended it.
Henry’s 3/37 was critical in the powerplay but the match’s pivot was Martin Guptill’s run-out from deep midwicket in the 49th over with India needing 25 off 3. That run-out, by a fielder with a weak throwing arm going for a desperate direct hit, ended a partnership that had India 8 runs from a remarkable semi-final comeback. One moment of fielding brilliance by New Zealand at the exact right time is the difference between India reaching the World Cup Final and going home.
2021 WTC Final, Southampton: New Zealand Win Cricket’s First Test Championship
June 2021. Rose Bowl, Southampton. India vs New Zealand in the inaugural World Test Championship Final.
Scorecard: New Zealand 249 & 140/2 dec; India 217 & 170. New Zealand win by 8 wickets.
Kyle Jamieson takes 5/31 in India’s first innings. New Zealand chase 139 in two sessions and win with 8 wickets in hand.
India were the better Test side in 2021. They had just beaten England in England. Their bowling attack Bumrah, Shami, Ashwin, Jadeja was the world’s best. neutral-ground Test cricket, played in English conditions with overhead cloud cover, neutralises India’s spin-reliant game plan entirely. New Zealand, who play in all conditions routinely, execute a clouds-and-swing plan that Indian batters had not prepared for.
Phase 3: 2024: New Zealand’s Historic Test Conquest of India
1st Test, Bengaluru (Oct 16-20, 2024): India Dismissed for 46
Scorecard:
- India 1st innings: 46 all out (Matt Henry 5/15, Tim Southee 4/8)
- New Zealand 1st innings: 402
- India 2nd innings: 462 (Kohli 70*, Jadeja 70)
- New Zealand 2nd innings: 110/2 (Target: 107; NZ win by 8 wickets)
India posted 462 in the second innings enough in most Tests to save the game. But a first-innings deficit of 356 made it irrelevant. New Zealand chased 107 as if it were a T20 target.
The 46 all-out is India’s lowest-ever Test total at home. What the raw number doesn’t show: Matt Henry’s 5/15 came on a surface where overnight rain had created a thin layer of moisture under the dry top. The Chinnaswamy pitch behaved for 90 minutes exactly as an English green-top would and Henry bowled it like he was at Basin Reserve. India’s batters, prepared for spin from day one, had no technical or mental preparation for that particular morning.
2nd Test, Pune (Oct 24-26, 2024): Santner’s 13 Wickets
Scorecard:
- India 1st innings: 156 (Santner 7/53)
- New Zealand 1st innings: 259
- India 2nd innings: 245 (Santner 6/104)
- New Zealand 2nd innings: 143/4. NZ win by 113 runs.
Mitchell Santner took 13 wickets in the match on a Pune pitch India had prepared to suit their own spinners.
Santner’s 13-wicket haul at Pune is the most tactically significant bowling performance in this rivalry’s 70-year history. It was on India’s surface, prepared by India’s groundsmen, designed to help India’s spinners and a New Zealand left-arm orthodox spinner turned it better than Ashwin or Jadeja in the same match. That is not a surface problem. That is a bowling intelligence problem. Santner read that Pune surface better than anyone else in either team.
3rd Test, Wankhede (Nov 1-3, 2024): 3-0 Sweep Completed
Scorecard:
- India 1st innings: 263; New Zealand 1st innings: 235
- India 2nd innings: 121; New Zealand 2nd innings: 147/5
- New Zealand win by 25 runs (Target: 147 for NZ; NZ reach 147/5)
Wait the scorecard reversal: India needed 147 to win (they scored 121 having set NZ 147 first).
New Zealand complete a historic 3-0 Test series whitewash in India. First team to do so in three or more Tests on Indian soil.
India needed 147 at Wankhede the easiest chase of the series. They scored 121. The collapse on a fifth-day Mumbai surface where the ball began to turn sharply confirmed that India’s middle-order has a systemic fourth-innings vulnerability: under spin pressure, on deteriorating pitches, when the scoreline is at stake, they fold. It happened in all three Tests.
Phase 4: New Zealand Tour of India 2025-26: Full ODI + T20I Scorecards
ODI Series (Jan 11–18, 2026): New Zealand Win 2-1: First-Ever ODI Series Win in India
Full scorecards:
1st ODI, Vadodara (Jan 11, 2026, D/N):
- New Zealand 300/8 (50 overs)
- India 306/6 (49 overs). India win by 4 wickets.
2nd ODI, Rajkot (Jan 14, 2026):
3rd ODI, Indore (Jan 18, 2026):
- New Zealand 337/8 (50 overs) Daryl Mitchell 137, Glenn Phillips 106
- India 296 (46 overs) Virat Kohli 124. New Zealand win by 41 runs.
New Zealand win the ODI series 2-1 their first-ever bilateral ODI series win in India in 37 years of trying.
Performance breakdown 3rd ODI: Kohli’s 124 was his 54th ODI century but India still lost by 41 runs. That’s the tactical story: Mitchell (137) and Phillips (106) two New Zealand middle-order batters posting individual centuries in a 50-over chase-setting innings in Indore gave New Zealand a total (337) that India’s death-over batting could not reach. India collapsed from 200/3 to 296 all out losing 7 wickets for 96 runs in the last 20 overs.
India had never lost a bilateral ODI series in India to New Zealand in 37 years and 7 previous series. The pressure of that unbroken record may have actually added to India’s second-innings fragility playing with the expectation of inevitably winning rather than executing each phase fresh.
T20I Series (Jan 21–31, 2026): India Win 4-1
Full scorecards:
1st T20I, Nagpur (Jan 21, N):
- India 238/7 (20 overs)
- New Zealand 190/7 (20 overs). India win by 48 runs.
2nd T20I, Lucknow (Jan 24, N):
3rd T20I, Delhi (Jan 26, N):
4th T20I, Ranchi (Jan 29, N):
5th T20I, Thiruvananthapuram (Jan 31, N):
- India 271/5 (20 overs)
- New Zealand 225 (19.4 overs). India win by 46 runs.
India win the T20I series 4-1.
India’s 271/5 at Thiruvananthapuram in the 5th T20I is the highest total India have posted against New Zealand in a T20I. Posting 271 on a flat Greenfield pitch, then holding NZ to 225, showed T20 India’s full range elite batting depth AND death-bowling control in the same innings.
T20 World Cup 2026 Final: India Beat New Zealand by 96 Runs
March 8, 2026. Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Scorecard:
- India: 255/5 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 89*, Abhishek Sharma 50+; NZ bowlers unable to execute death-over plans on a flat surface)
- New Zealand: 159/10 in 19.4 overs (Jasprit Bumrah 4 wickets, Axar Patel 3 wickets)
- India win by 96 runs.
India become the first team in history to win back-to-back T20 World Cups.
Most observers framed this as India’s “comfortable” T20 WC Final win. New Zealand reached this Final having beaten several top-ranked T20 sides. The 96-run margin is deceptive Bumrah’s 4-wicket burst in the powerplay destroyed New Zealand’s chase structure inside the first five overs. Without that powerplay burst, 255 could have been very uncomfortable.
Format-by-Format Head-to-Head (2026 Updated)
| Format | Matches | India Wins | NZ Wins | Draws/NR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 65 | 22 | 16 | 27 |
| ODIs | 123 | 63 | 52 | 8 |
| T20Is | 31 | 19 | 11 | 1 |
| ICC ODI WC | ~10 | 5 | 5 | — |
| T20 WC (incl. 2026 Final) | ~6 | 4 | 2 | — |
| WTC | 1 | 0 | 1 | — |
| ICC knockout record (all) | ~17 | 9 | 8 | — |
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Three Original Observations This Rivalry Demands
- New Zealand’s ODI win-rate against India (52 from 123 = 42.3%) is higher than against any other top-four nation they face regularly. This is not coincidence New Zealand’s seam-heavy attack and set-up targeting middle-order collapses (below 150) consistently works against India’s batting style. India’s lower-middle order batting fragility (Nos. 6-10) is specifically exposed by New Zealand’s seam-and-variation plans at the death.
- The 2024 Test series 3-0 whitewash and the 2026 ODI series 2-1 win make New Zealand the only visiting nation to have won both a Test series and an ODI series in India in the same two-year window since South Africa in 1999-2000. That’s a 24-year gap since any team achieved both. The recurrence is not random it reflects genuine structural preparation by New Zealand cricket.
- India and New Zealand’s ICC knockout record is effectively level: 9-8 across all major ICC events. In a rivalry where India lead 63-52 in ODIs and 22-16 in Tests, a near-equal ICC knockout record is the most powerful evidence that New Zealand are specifically a different team in tournament cricket versus bilateral cricket. Their tournament-phase preparation, mental frameworks, and conditions adaptability are calibrated specifically for short-format knockout pressure something bilateral series cannot replicate.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: What is New Zealand vs India head-to-head in all formats?
Ans. India lead overall: Tests 22-16 (65 matches, 27 drawn), ODIs 63-52 (123 matches), T20Is 19-11 (31 matches). India have won 104 of 219 total matches; New Zealand 79.
Q2: Did New Zealand beat India in the 2024 Test series in India?
Ans. Yes. New Zealand won 3-0 — the first team to whitewash India 3-0 in a three-match home series. India were dismissed for 46 in Bengaluru (Matt Henry 5/15), lost by 113 runs in Pune (Santner 13 wickets), and lost by 25 runs in Mumbai (Wankhede).
Q3: Did New Zealand win the 2026 ODI series in India?
Ans. Yes. New Zealand won 2-1 — their first-ever bilateral ODI series win in India. NZ won by 7 wickets in Rajkot and by 41 runs in Indore (Mitchell 137, Phillips 106), despite Kohli’s century. India won the 1st ODI in Vadodara by 4 wickets.
Q4: What were the results of the 2026 India vs New Zealand T20I series?
Ans. India won the T20I series 4-1. India won T20Is 1 (by 48 runs, Nagpur), 2, 3, and 5 (by 46 runs, Thiruvananthapuram, India 271/5). New Zealand won T20I 4 (Ranchi). India’s 271/5 in the 5th T20I was their highest T20I total vs New Zealand.
Q5: What was the 2019 World Cup semi-final result between India and New Zealand?
Ans. New Zealand beat India by 18 runs at Manchester. India were 5/3 in the powerplay, recovered through Jadeja (77) and Dhoni (50), but Guptill’s run-out of Dhoni with 25 runs needed off 3 overs ended the chase. NZ scored 239/8; India 221 all out.
Q6: What was the T20 World Cup 2026 Final result?
Ans. India beat New Zealand by 96 runs at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on March 8, 2026. India scored 255/5 (Samson 89*); New Zealand were bowled out for 159 (Bumrah 4 wickets). India won back-to-back T20 World Cups.