A ruthless India is expected to seal their maiden T20 International series win in New Zealand and only a special comeback from the struggling hosts in the third game at Hamilton on Wednesday can delay what seems inevitable. India won the twin T20 Internationals in Auckland by margins of six and seven wickets, respectively, to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.

A third successive win at Seddon Parkwill give Virat Kohli's team their first-ever T20I series' win in New Zealand,a feat they were unable to achieve on two occasions previously. India lost 0-2under Mahendra Singh Dhoni back in 2008-09, and last year, they went down 1-2.

Overall, this Indian side has seen an uptick in fortunes and are unbeaten in five T20 series since the 2019 ODI World Cup, including the ongoing one against New Zealand. The only contest they didn't win was against South Africa when the three-match series ended 1-1 after one of the games was washed out.

However, their current winning form in T20 cricket won't lead to any meaningful change in the ICC rankings. India is currently placed fifth in the T20I rankings, and need to win the remaining three matches this series 5-0 to move up to the fourth spot. New Zealand is currently placed sixth. Pakistan, Australia, England, and South Africa, in that order, sit ahead in the rankings' table.

India: Virat Kohli (capt), RohitSharma, KL Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer,Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami,Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Kuggeleijn, Colin Munro, Colin de Grandhomme, Tom Bruce, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Hamish Bennett, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner.

The match at Hamilton is scheduled to begin at 12.30 pm IST.