985 runs at 12 an over, two all-outs and a 2-2 draw: what the West Indies series tells India before New Zealand

India's T20I series against West Indies ended in the rain in Bengaluru on Saturday, with Naman Dhir's 24 off six balls the last thing anyone will remember from a 2-2 draw. Four days later, the same squad plays New Zealand in Christchurch.

On paper the series was a run-fest that India mostly enjoyed. India scored 985 runs in a little under 82 overs, at just over 12 an over. Five of their batters scored more than 120 runs, and every one of them struck at 180 or better. And yet they won only two of the four completed games.

New Zealand will ask India a very different set of questions. Here is what the West Indies series actually showed, from TryBall's scorecards of all five matches.

The batting: five men at 180-plus

This is India's top five across the series:

• Shreyas Iyer: 181 runs off 88 balls, strike rate 205.7, including the 43-ball 102 not out in Lucknow
• Sanju Samson: 168 runs off 86 balls, strike rate 195.3, with 82 in Ranchi and 56 in Hyderabad
• Ishan Kishan: 153 runs off 80 balls, strike rate 191.3
• Abhishek Sharma: 145 runs off 80 balls, strike rate 181.3, with a 19-ball fifty in Indore
• Tilak Varma: 122 runs off 65 balls, strike rate 187.7

Few T20I sides have a top five this aggressive. Iyer, Samson, Abhishek and Kishan shared 33 sixes between them. India passed 220 in three of their four completed innings, and the one time they didn't, they knocked off 172 in 14.4 overs.

The problem: 223 all out, twice

The flip side showed up in Indore and Hyderabad. India were bowled out for 223 in both games, the first time in 20 overs and the second with three balls left.

Indore was fine, because the bowlers defended it. Hyderabad wasn't. Chasing 248, Samson's 56 off 23 kept India in it, then Keemo Paul took 5 for 41 and the lower order folded. Naman Dhir, Axar Patel and Prince Yadav made three runs between them.

That is the trade-off of batting like this. When the top five go, there isn't much behind them. Nitish Kumar Reddy (62 runs at 182) is the best of the rest, but Axar made 23 off 19 balls across two innings and Shivam Dube only batted once, for 7 off 10.

On flat Indian pitches with 250 on the board, losing all ten wickets still gets you a big total. On a slower or seaming pitch, the same approach can leave you 140 all out.

The bowling: no answer to Shai Hope

Shai Hope finished with 261 runs off 137 balls, two unbeaten hundreds and 20 sixes. Sherfane Rutherford added 221 runs and 15 sixes. Between them, those two hit more sixes than India's top four.

India conceded 879 runs in the four innings they bowled, at 11.3 an over. Prince Yadav (9.13 an over in two games) was the only Indian bowler under 10. India's two front-line spinners went for plenty: Kuldeep Yadav at 10.75 and Axar Patel at 12.22. Naman Dhir picked up five wickets with his part-time off-spin, as many as Arshdeep Singh, India's leading T20I wicket-taker.

West Indies had the better spinner too. Roston Chase took six wickets at 9.06 an over, including three for 24 in Ranchi.

Why New Zealand is a different test

India have never played a T20I at Hagley Oval, where the series starts on Thursday. It is not a 250 ground. In the first 11 men's T20Is there, the average first-innings score was 159, the highest total was 208, and the side batting second won seven times. In March 2025, New Zealand bowled Pakistan out for 91 there, with Jacob Duffy taking four wickets. Duffy is in New Zealand's squad for this series.

The games are also night matches in New Zealand's spring, starting at 8 pm local time. Cool evenings and fresh pitches tend to help seamers who swing the ball.

Three things follow for India:

• The top five may have to pick their moments. A start of 50 for 3 in the powerplay is a disaster in Christchurch in a way that it isn't in Ranchi.
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar finally gets his chance. He was called up for the Bengaluru decider but the rain meant he never bowled. Swing with the new ball at night is exactly what he was recalled for.
• Varun Chakaravarthy comes back into the squad. After a series in which India's spinners leaked runs, he gives Iyer a different kind of spin option, and New Zealand's batters have struggled against mystery spin before.

Who has the edge?

India have won 19 of their 31 T20Is against New Zealand, with one tie, and they beat New Zealand by 96 runs in the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad in March. But this New Zealand side is at home, with Tim Seifert, Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips in the batting and Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson and Duffy in the attack.

The West Indies series showed India can outscore anyone on a flat pitch. Christchurch will show whether they can win a game where 170 is a good score.

The 1st T20I is on Thursday, 22 October at 12:30 PM IST. TryBall has the toss, both playing XIs and the live score on the match page.