Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah OUT, Kuldeep Yadav to play with…

Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav may miss the services of all-rounder Axar Patel in the second T20I against New Zealand in Raipur on Friday due to injury.

Team India and New Zealand are set to ring in some changes for the second T20I in the five-match series at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Friday. Suryakumar Yadav’s side maybe forced to make a key change with Delhi Capitals all-rounder Axar Patel injuring his finger while bowling his last over in the first T20I in Nagpur earlier this week.

Abhishek Sharma had to complete Axar Patel’s last over as he walked out with a bloodied finger. If Axar Patel fails to recover for the second T20I in Raipur, then chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav may take his place. Kuldeep will also provide a more wicket-taking option to the Indian skipper to team up with Varun Chakravarthy.

Butter-fingered Team India failed to take too many wickets in the middle of the New Zealand innings after Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh had struck early. Indians should be thankful to Abhishek Sharma’s blazing 84 off 35 balls and Rinku Singh’s brilliant cameo of 44 off 20 balls to power them to 238 for 7 after batting first.

Friday will be India’s landmark 100th T20I match at home and Suryakumar Yadav will be keen to celebrate it with a win and double their lead in the five-match series. Indians may also consider bringing in Harshit Rana in place of Axar as he provides more batting depth as compared to Kuldeep in the playing 11.

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If India do want to play both Harshit and Kuldeep in the playing 11, they might consider resting Jasprit Bumrah as he looked off-colour in the first T20I match. Bumrah has a long couple of months ahead of him with the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 starting next month followed by the IPL 2026 season.

For New Zealand, if ODI skipper Michael Bracewell has recovered from his calf strain, he can come into the side to replace leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who proved to be quite expensive in the first T20I match. The Black Caps may also consider bringing in Matt Henry in place of all-rounder Kristian Clarke to provide more strength to their bowling attack.

️ “Best replacement for Tilak Varma is Shreyas Iyer.”
More of quickfire answers from a complete all-rounder as #SimonDoull finishes the sentence on all things T20 World Cup.
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 STARTS FEB 7 pic.twitter.com/Cgto5UP4gx
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 23, 2026

India vs New Zealand 2026 2nd T20I match Predicted 11

India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel/Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah/Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy

New Zealand: Tim Robinson, Devon Conway (wk), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (c), Kristian Clarke/Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi/ Michael Bracewell, Jacob Duffy

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