Suryakumar Yadav’s recent lean patch has not shaken his self-belief.

The 35-year-old — who will play his 100th T20I when he leads the Indian side in the first T20I against New Zealand — was his joyous self while fielding pointed questions about his dwindling returns.

When asked how he was working on his game ‘behind the curtains’, a tongue-in-cheek reply ensued: “Parde ke peeche tho nahin kiya mein. Khula ground hee tha. Udar hee batting karne gaya tha. (I did not bat behind the curtain. I batted in an open ground itself),” Suryakumar said, evoking chuckles across the press conference hall at the VCA Stadium.

“I’ve been short of runs. But I can’t change my identity. I have decided to keep doing what I have been doing in the last three or four years, which has given me a lot of success,” Suryakumar said.

The skipper conveyed that his focus was on India’s performance in the five-match series and the upcoming T20 World Cup, and not his individual numbers.

“If I were playing a singles sport like table tennis or lawn tennis, I would have given more thought to it. This is a team sport, and my first responsibility is to know how the team is doing. I’m happy if I perform in the team’s victory. If not, it doesn’t matter, as it can happen. I have to look after the other 14 players also, as I’ve been appointed as the leader of everyone,” he explained.

Suryakumar was quick to point out that the Test and ODI series losses to New Zealand are history, and that India has been doing exceptionally well in the shortest format.

“The Test series loss was long back. The T20Is are about to start, and we’ll talk about that. We’ve been playing this format well. There will be pressure, but where’s the fun in playing if there is no pressure?”

This is the season of model examinations. Just as students across the country get ready for their upcoming boards, India and New Zealand have their own mock tests lined up ahead of the all-important T20 World Cup.

The five-match T20I series, starting at the VCA Stadium here on Wednesday (January 21, 2026), serves as the ideal dress rehearsal for Suryakumar Yadav’s Men in Blue and Mitchell Santner’s Black Caps.

With the 20-team extravaganza barely three weeks away, both sides — armed with almost full-strength squads — will want to dot their i’s and cross their t’s, much like studious students revising the chapters.

India head coach Gautam Gambhir, though, will have to make some revisions to his original plan due to injuries to Tilak Varma (sidelined for the first three matches) and Washington Sundar (ruled out of the series).

The home team will field its strongest available XI, which means pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and talismanic all-rounder Hardik Pandya will be seen in action. Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, after a rather tumultuous period, will want to use these five games to solidify his spot at the top of the order.

When asked who among Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer will take Tilak’s spot, Suryakumar confirmed: “Kishan will play at No. 3. He is in our World Cup team. We had picked him first, and hence it is his place and responsibility. The scenario would have been different if we were talking about the No. 4 or No. 5 spots.”

For the Kiwis — buoyant after their ‘back-up’ team’s triumph over India in the ODI leg — the challenge will be to ensure that their T20 globetrotters, some of them coming from their franchise league commitments, hit the ground running efficiently and cohesively.

Nagpur 2016-2026

The viral 2016-2026 social media challenge has a curious sporting parallel this week. It was here, on March 15, 2016, that the New Zealand spinners — led by Santner (4-0-11-4) — fashioned a famous victory over India in a T20 World Cup fixture. Almost a decade later, as the teams return to the scene, can the Indian tweakers flip the script against Santner’s men?

The Kiwis seem to have made a happy habit of scripting history on Indian shores. After winning the Test series in 2024 and the ODIs recently, can they make it three in three by clinching the T20I series, or even better, the T20 World Cup?

They couldn’t have asked for a better mock test, for sure.

The teams (from): India: Suryakumar Yadav (Capt.), Axar Patel (Vice-capt.), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (wk) and Ravi Bishnoi.

New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (Capt.), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway (wk), Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Bevon Jacobs, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Robinson, Ish Sodhi and Kristian Clarke.

Match starts at 7 p.m.