After a disastrous tour to Australia, New Zealand would've been happy returning to the home comfort if not for facing India, a world cricket "powerhouse", that can dominate the Kiwis during this upcoming full tour, beginning January 24, former Black Caps batsman Craig McMillan acknowledged. 

India arrives for five T20Is, three ODIs and two World Test Championship fixtures, not allowing the New Zealanders to breathe easy despite the home conditions, especially after going down heavily when they last hosted Virat Kohli & company. 

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India won the ODI series 4-1 and lost the challenge in T20Is by only a slender margin in New Zealand last year before the World Cup in UK. 

Kohli's team is also at the top of the Test championship table, with seven victories in as many games since the ongoing cycle began. 

"It's big. This whole Indian tour is big after what happened in Australia," PTI quoted McMillan as saying. "This Indian side are a powerhouse. Doesn't matter if it's Tests, ODIs, T20s, they are the real deal so it's going to be a really intriguing tour. For New Zealand to get a pass mark for this tour they need to win two of the three series." 

The T20I leg of the tour will be played with a bigger objective in mind of refining preparations for the World Cup in Australia later this year. 

"Five Twenty20s to start and I know it's not everyone's favourite format of the game but we've got a T20 World Cup later in the year in October in Australia so straight away these five matches become important," McMillan said. 

"Because of the performance in Australia we need to start winning again and get that support back."

"They're still trying to find in T20 what our best side is. We've just seen the Super Smash and there's an opportunity for some young guys who performed in that to be given a chance."

(Inputs from PTI)