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.
It is quite hard to get adapted to the situations of The ground. Yes, we know that the situation in India is not very favorable for Newzealand so we can expect their performance to drop a little. But I really don't think that should be an excuse.