India vs New Zealand Prediction, 1st ODI – Who will win today’s match between IND vs NZ?

The curtains are being pulled up as India (IND) and New Zealand (NZ) are all in readiness to begin their 2026 with the first ODI of the upcoming series at the Baroda Cricket Association Stadium, Vadodara on Sunday, January 11. Both the sides will be meeting in the format for the first time since the Champions Trophy 2025 final, where the Men in Blue emerged as the ultimate winners.

India had a brilliant year in one-day cricket in 2025, where they not only won 11 out of the 14 games played, but also lifted an ICC trophy under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. This time, though, Shubman Gill is expected to be leading the side for the rest of the year, and will want to make the team reach even greater heights.

New Zealand, on the other hand, had an even better record in One-Day Internationals in 2025, winning a staggering 17 out of 20 encounters. However, they failed to beat the Indians on both the occasions during the calendar year. The Michael Bracewell-led side will want to change the fortunes against India by starting off positively this year.

IND vs NZ Match Details

Baroda Cricket Association Stadium — Pitch Report

The game on Sunday is supposed to be the first-ever Men’s ODI at the newly constructed venue of the Baroda Cricket Association Stadium in Vadodara. However, in the three Women’s ODIs that have been played here, the team batting first has had an advantage, winning twice. The wickets here are largely assistive to the batters, and the tendency of the pitch to slow down in the latter half of the match is likely to influence the team winning the toss to set up a total.

IND vs NZ — Head-to-Head Record in ODIs

IND vs NZ — Predicted Playing 11s

India

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand

Devon Conway (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell (captain), Glenn Phillips, Zak Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson, Adithya Ashok, Michael Rae, Jayden Lennox

IND vs NZ — Probable Best Perfomers

Probable Best Batter: Virat Kohli

Star batter Virat Kohli is in sublime form and is expected to continue the flowing of runs from his blade on Sunday as well. He was India’s highest run-scorer in the format in 2025 with 651 runs, including three centuries and four fifties. He is also pretty close to overtaking Sachin Tendulkar and getting most runs for his country versus New Zealand. The Delhi cricketer is expected to please his millions of fans in the 1st ODI.

Probable Best Bowler: Kyle Jamieson

Ace pacer Kyle Jamieson has been an excellent in utilizing his height to extract bounce and pace even on the surfaces which do not have a lot of the offering. His ability to nip the ball back in and bowl beamers at the batters can result in early breakthroughs for New Zealand, putting the Indians on the back foot right away. He can be the difference between the hosts and a win in Vadodara.

Today Match Prediction: Team batting first to win the match