Limited number of players might be a reason, but the ground is a big reason in my view. During the month of November the climate condition in Dubai will be so cool and that might ease the New Zealand players get adopted to it with ease and play better. When they play at the Indian ground it'll be little difficult for them to get adopted to the varying climate condition.
I don't know how much of that is true. Even under cooler conditions in November, I would have thought that Indians would be having the advantage. New Zealand is having diametrically opposite conditions at home, and I don't think that their players have more experience in playing under such conditions. There are multiple reasons for the debacle from India. First and foremost, they were more interested in BLM and other topics, than cricket. The cartel under Kohli made sure that players were not selected based on merit. If that was the case, then Hardik would have never played a single game. And finally, the bowlers failed against tough opposition.