Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the third India A four-day game against New Zealand A, leaving one fitness test between him and the opening Test in Wellington on November 19.
Pant has been at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru since October 23, rehabbing the left-side strain he picked up captaining Rest of India in the 2026 Irani Cup. ESPNcricinfo reported on Thursday that he would miss Saturday’s game at Bert Sutcliffe Oval too, having sat out the first two, with Tilak Varma joining the squad as his replacement.
His route back is a second fitness test at the CoE on November 9, ten days before the Basin Reserve Test, after he fell short of the medical staff’s benchmarks on November 1. India head coach Gautam Gambhir, asked after the T20I series, said he had “no information” and would share an update once he had one.
Dhruv Jurel, the second wicketkeeper in the 16-man squad, has kept in both drawn games against New Zealand A and would step in again. Pant’s last Test was the second match of the Sri Lanka tour in Colombo in late August.
Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Prasidh Krishna likely to feature in the 3rd India A Test
The three are expected to play at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, which gives India’s red-ball plans a dry run Rishabh Pant would miss. Jasprit Bumrah has trained with the squad for two days since arriving in Lincoln. His last Test was against South Africa in Guwahati in November 2025, and his only cricket since came at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, where India defended gold in early October.
Ravindra Jadeja arrives off two Ranji Trophy games for Saurashtra with seven wickets and a century. Prasidh Krishna has completed three weeks of rehabilitation from a hamstring strain, cleared for all formats but kept out of the ODI squad to preserve him for the longer game.
India were beaten 2-0 on their last Test tour of New Zealand in 2020 and have not won a series there since 2008-09.
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Edited by Srinjoy
