Scheduled-match guide — source cutoff 3 November 2026 at 10:44 IST. Schedule and India squad checked at 10:22 IST; latest NZC availability updates checked at 10:42 IST. New Zealand and India are scheduled to begin their five-match ODI series at Eden Park, Auckland, on Wednesday, 4 November 2026. The fixture is listed as a men’s One Day International, with a 2:00 am UTC start, 7:30 am IST for readers in India and 3:00 pm NZDT. The BCCI match centre, BCCI schedule release, New Zealand Cricket schedule and Eden Park event page agree on the core identity, venue and start-time conversion. 31
At the research cutoff, this is a scheduled fixture rather than a live match. No toss has taken place, no final playing XI has been confirmed, and no result exists to report. Weather, pitch condition, late fitness news and any team-sheet change are therefore left out rather than guessed. A fresh official match-centre check is required on match day before adding any live status.
New Zealand v India 1st ODI: match facts at a glance
| Detail | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Fixture | New Zealand v India, 1st ODI |
| Format | Men’s One Day International; day/night listing |
| Date | Wednesday, 4 November 2026 |
| Venue | Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand |
| Start | 2:00 am UTC / 7:30 am IST / 3:00 pm NZDT |
| Status at cutoff | Scheduled; match yet to begin |
| Series | Five-match ODI series in India’s 2026/27 New Zealand tour |
| Toss | No result yet |
| Final XI | Not confirmed |
The three clocks are useful because each is supplied by a different official context. BCCI gives the UTC and India reading, while the NZC schedule and Eden Park event listing give the 3:00 pm Auckland start. Eden Park’s event information also says gates open at 1:30 pm, but that operational detail is not a substitute for the first-ball time. 13
Why the Auckland opener matters in the tour schedule
The ODI is the next format in a wider India tour that includes five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests. NZC’s June schedule announcement places the white-ball and red-ball fixtures within the 2026/27 home summer and names Eden Park among the venues used for the India visit. The five ODI dates are Auckland on 4 November, Wellington on 7 November, Hamilton on 10 November, and Mount Maunganui on 13 and 15 November. 72
That context explains why this opener matters without turning it into a prediction. New Zealand’s 10 October ODI announcement describes the series as part of preparation ahead of the 2027 men’s World Cup. That is the board’s stated selection context; it does not establish a likely winner, a current tactical plan or a confirmed combination for the first match. 8
For Indian readers, the Auckland start is particularly straightforward: the scheduled first ball is at 7:30 am IST on Wednesday morning. New Zealand viewers have a 3:00 pm Auckland start. The match is scheduled, not underway, so a start time should not be presented as a guarantee that play will begin without a later official delay notice.
Announced squads: useful context, not the playing XI
New Zealand Cricket’s 2 November updated squad list for ODIs 1–3 names Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Nathan Smith, Will Young and Blair Tickner. Santner is captain and Latham is listed as wicketkeeper. Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra are ruled out of the series. The same official update separately says Matt Fisher remains for the full series as an additional bowling option, although its displayed opening-three squad list omits his name. That document is a dated squad record, not a confirmed Auckland XI. 12
Latest first-ODI availability update, 3 November: NZC subsequently ruled Devon Conway out of the Auckland opener with concussion after he and Matt Henry collided at training. Both continue to be monitored, and NZC says their series involvement will be updated. The earlier squad list above must therefore not be read as a list of available first-ODI players. This update does not confirm Henry’s selection or a replacement playing XI. 13
BCCI’s updated announced India group for the first three ODIs contains Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Auqib Nabi. BCCI lists Gill as captain, Iyer as vice-captain, Rahul and Kishan as wicketkeepers, and Nitish Kumar Reddy as available only for the first ODI. Auqib Nabi was added to the first-three-ODIs group in the 31 October update. Again, the published squad is not the final XI. 11
The distinction matters in a pre-match guide. A squad list records selection availability at the time of the announcement; a playing XI is confirmed later by the team and match officials. Fitness clearance, tactical choice and the toss can all affect the final team sheet. This article therefore uses the announced captains—Shubman Gill for India and Mitchell Santner for New Zealand—without claiming that either captain has named a final XI.
The updated NZC announcement still places Finn Allen and Lockie Ferguson in the later ODIs 4–5 group, while Tim Seifert and Matt Fisher now remain for the full series. Henry Nicholls joins for the opening three games; Dean Foxcroft joins for the final two. These changes supersede the 10 October selection announcement. They remain squad and availability information, not first-ODI selections, and the final Auckland XI is unknown at this cutoff. 12
Eden Park venue context without a current-pitch claim
Eden Park is the documented Auckland venue for this men’s ODI. The official event page calls the fixture “BLACKCAPS v India ODI”, gives the local date and first-ball time, and provides the gate-opening information. Those sources establish the venue and event logistics; they do not provide a current pitch report, weather forecast or match-day surface assessment. 4
The banner’s ground layer uses a dated historical Eden Park South Stand photograph by TimBray from 23 March 2015. It is used as venue context only. It is not a photograph of the 4 November 2026 match, it does not show the current pitch, and it cannot support a claim about present conditions. The source is recorded as CC BY-SA 4.0, with attribution, ShareAlike obligations and disclosure of the blue/dark overlay, editorial compositing, layout and proportional WebP encoding retained in the package and visible image credit. The CC licence applies to the adapted background contribution, not to the separate ICC portrait rights. 10
The same boundary applies to the player portraits. The composite uses Shubman Gill and Mitchell Santner as editorial subjects because the announced captaincy record names them for this fixture. Their portraits are historical source references, not evidence that either player is in a confirmed XI or that the artwork is a current-match photograph. The visible caption says so directly.
What is known—and what is not—before the toss
The verified pre-match record supports the fixture identity, format, five-match series context, date, venue, three time zones, announced captains and first-three-ODIs squad groups. It does not support a toss winner, final XI, score, result, pitch verdict, weather statement, player-of-the-match claim or prediction about which side will win.
Accordingly, the toss field remains no result yet, and the final-XI field remains not confirmed. There is no probable-XI list in this guide. Naming a player in an announced squad is not the same as saying that player will bat, bowl or keep wicket. Readers should use the official match centre for the team sheets once they are released.
This also keeps the article useful after the toss. If a later verified update is added, it should state the official toss record and confirmed XIs with a new check time. Any result paragraph belongs to a subsequent post-match update supported by an official scorecard or reputable score provider, not to this scheduled pre-match template.
How the ODI series continues after Auckland
The opening match is followed by Wellington on 7 November and Hamilton on 10 November. The series then moves to Mount Maunganui for ODIs on 13 and 15 November. BCCI lists the five ODI starts at 7:30 am IST, while the NZC schedule gives the corresponding local entries as 3:00 pm. The sequence provides a clear tour map without requiring a prediction about the opening result. 1
The two Tests begin later in Wellington on 19 November and Christchurch from 27 November to 1 December. Those dates are wider-tour context, not part of the 4 November ODI, so they should not be mixed into the match-status block or used as evidence about the Eden Park surface. 1
Reader checklist for match morning
For readers planning around the start, the key information is simple: open the official match centre before 7:30 am IST, confirm whether the announced squad has become a final XI, check the toss entry, and then follow the status shown by the official provider. The article’s scheduled times remain 2:00 am UTC, 7:30 am IST and 3:00 pm NZDT.
The practical caution is equally simple. A scheduled listing can change because of a late team decision, fitness update, delay or abandonment. None of those outcomes is known at the research cutoff. This guide therefore reports the documented plan, labels unknowns plainly and leaves current conditions to a fresh match-day source check.
Sources and verification
The source dates and retrieval times are kept separate. Schedule, match-centre and India squad checks were completed at approximately 10:22 IST on 3 November; the two latest NZC squad and availability updates were read at 10:42 IST. The historical image-rights source was checked at 10:44 IST. That last observation is the aggregate source cutoff, not a claim that every earlier page was checked again. The BCCI match centre supplies the scheduled fixture status, NZC and Eden Park supply the local schedule, and the new NZC updates supersede the older New Zealand squad availability. 1 3 12