NEW DELHI: Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant was on Friday named in India’s Test squad for two matches in New Zealand next month, but will need fitness clearance to play as he is recovering from a side strain.
Pant, a left-hand batter, was ruled out of the first two unofficial Tests of India A tour of New Zealand later this month due to a left side strain.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is also part of the 16-member squad, led by Shubman Gill, for the matches starting with the opener in Wellington on Nov 19.
Bumrah is not part of the preceding five ODI matches, the squads for which were also announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Gill will be captain for the first three matches starting in Auckland on Nov 4 and then Shreyas Iyer will take over as leader in the final two.
Gill and KL Rahul have not been named for ODI four and five. Veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are part of all the five 50-over matches.
India’s tour will begin with five T20 matches, the squads for which were announced earlier.
Earlier on Friday, seam bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar was added to India’s T20 squad for the fifth match against the West Indies after injury to Arshdeep Singh.
Arshdeep, a left-arm quick, was hit by a bouncer on his bowling shoulder while batting and retired hurt in India’s defeat on Wednesday as West Indies levelled the five-match series 2-2. The decider is in Bengaluru on Sunday.
On Arshdeep’s availability for the match, the BCCI said the “decision on his participation for the final T20I will be taken prior to the game based on his recovery”.
Bhuvneshwar last played an international for India in 2022.
Squads:
For New Zealand series:
ODI (for first three ODIs): Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (vice-captain), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna*, Kuldeep Yadav
ODI (for fourth and fifth matches): Shreyas Iyer (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper, vice-captain), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra (wicket-keeper), Mohammed Siraj, Yash Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav
Test: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper)*, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
*Subject to fitness clearance.
For West Indies:
T20: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Naman Dhir, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026
