Iyer last played a T20I back in December 2023, against Australia at home, and had fallen out of India’s T20I plans after that. He has not played any T20s since the IPL final last year and missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s while recovering from a spleen injury but returned to domestic cricket for the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy for Mumbai and is playing in the current ODI series.
Legspinner Bishnoi, meanwhile, last played a T20I against England almost a year ago in Mumbai. He also featured in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, after playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he picked up nine wickets in seven games with an economy rate of 8.72.
The five T20Is will be played on January 21 in Nagpur, January 23 in Raipur, January 25 in Guwahati, January 28 in Visakhapatnam and January 31 in Thiruvananthapuram. This will be India’s last series before the T20 World Cup starting February 7.
India’s updated T20I squad for New Zealand series
Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (first three T20Is), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-capt), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Bishnoi.
