India vs New Zealand: List of milestones that could be achieved during T20I series

India and New Zealand are set to play five-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series, beginning from Friday.

The first two T20Is are scheduled to be played at Auckland's Eden Park followed by matches in Hamilton's Seddon Park Wellington's Westpac Stadium and Mount Maunganui's Bay Oval.

Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson are set to lead India and New Zealand respectively and will be keen to win the T20I series, which is being played as a warm-up ahead of the T20 World Cup that is going to take place later this year.

While India suffered a blow before the series with Shikhar Dhawan getting ruled out due to shoulder injury, even the Kiwis will be without a few key players such as Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson who are still recovering.

Williamson, who missed New Zealand's previous series that was against England due to a hip injury, is back boosting his side's chances against former champions Team India.

Here are 4 milestones that could be achieved during the five-match T20I series between India and New Zealand:

Virat Kohli chasing most Man of the Match awards

India's last T20I series was against Sri Lanka at home earlier this month, where Kohli experimented with his batting position for the team's sake and batted at No. 4 and No. 6. Considering the T20 World Cup is only a few months away, it will be interesting to watch if the Indian captain continues to experiment or go back to his usual No. 3 position in the batting order.

Irrespective of his batting slot, one can expect Kohli to go all guns against New Zealand, a team against whom he averages close to 50 in the shortest format of the game. While Kohli has played one-days in New Zealand, it will be his outing there in the T20Is.

The Indian skipper so far has won 12 Man of the Match awards in 78 matches, the same as Mohammad Nabi. The Afghan currently is on the top of the list because he has clinched those awards in a lesser number of games (75).

Rohit Sharma nearing 10K international runs as an opener

Rohit did not kick-start his India career as an opener when he made his debut in 2007. The Mumbai cricketer did opener a few times between 2009 and 2012 but his career's turning point happened only in 2013 from where his journey as India's regular opener began.

So far, Rohit has played 360 international matches, across formats and has scored 13,889 runs at a decent average of 44.37. Whereas, Rohit has opened for India 218 times in international cricket and has scored 9,937 runs at an excellent average of 50.69.

Rohit, who is second on the list of most T20I runs in the world behind Kohli, will look to touch the 10,000-mark in India's upcoming T20I series against New Zealand.

India will aim to win 1st T20I series in New Zealand

India and New Zealand have played each other in four T20I series since their first meeting in the shortest format back in 2009. Out of the four, the Indian team has triumphed in only one and is yet to taste a T20I series victory in New Zealand.

New Zealand, in their maiden T20I series against India, whitewashed the opponents 2-0 at home. Three years later, the Kiwis defeated India at their backyard 1-0 in a two-match series. India finally defeated these opponents in a T20I series in 2017 and the moment came in Kohli's first year as India's full-time captain.

However, Kohli's team failed to win the series when they toured New Zealand at the start of 2019. The hosts won the series 2-1.

Ross Taylor to become 1st New Zealander to play 100 T20Is

Taylor is easily one of the best cricketers to have represented New Zealand. He is the leading run-scorer of his country in both ODIs and Tests. Even at 35, he is one of the backbones of New Zealand cricket. Taylor, who made his T20I debut in 2006 against Sri Lanka, might not average great but has scored close to 2,000 runs in 95 matches.

If Taylor is selected in all the five T20Isin the upcoming T20I series against India, he will become the first New Zealander with 100 caps in the shortest format, overall he will be only fourth cricketer to have achieved the milestone after Pakistan's Shoaib Malik, Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga and India's Rohit.