By his admission, Suryakumar Yadav continues to hit the ball well in the nets. Outside of it, he has had to dead bat more questions about not taking it beyond lately. The India captain, five games away now from leading the defending champions in a home World Cup, staunchly offers that the substance will come and that the style remains non-negotiable.

He can afford to comedically sidestep some of the inquisition, for India are unarguably the best T20I team in the world at the moment. Since the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid combine delivered the world title in 2024, India have won 29 of the 36 matches played in this format. They may have created a potential stumbling block for themselves by shuffling the top-order deck and messing with the balance of the side with the re-introduction of Shubman Gill but even that is in the past now. Sanju Samson is reunited with Abhishek Sharma at the top and there's room for Rinku Singh to return as the finisher.

The next 11 days should give India a chance to take a closer look at their clockwork precision for any possible red flags before the big tournament. Who better than New Zealand then, to hold up a mirror to this Indian side. The ambitious travellers from this island country have recently been able to knock the wind out of India's sails in both Tests and ODIs. Their returning captain Mitchell Santner would like nothing better than to go three for three by shaking India up in the shortest format too.

New Zealand have done reasonably well in this World Cup cycle [15 wins and 7 losses in 26 T20Is] but have come up short every time they've faced Australia and England. Tripping up against the best will not quite cut it if New Zealand harbour hopes of breaking the World Cup hegemony of the 'big three' for the first time in 10 years. They too, then, have under two weeks to get all their ducks in a row.

When: India vs New Zealand, 1st T20I, January 21, 07:00 PM IST

Where: Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur