India’s pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will play one red-ball game to prepare for the two-Test series against New Zealand. Bumrah and Pant are set to turn up for India A in the third and final unofficial Test of the series against New Zealand A in Lincoln.
As per a report by Cricinfo, Bumrah and Pant are currently at BCCI's Centre of Excellence, Bengaluru. Pant was named in the initial India A squad. His participation was subject to fitness. He was ruled out of the first two games due to a left-side strain.
Bumrah played just Asian Games after recovering from injury
Bumrah’s previous appearance was in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 final against Pakistan. He played the semifinal and the final after the quarter-final was washed out due to rain. Earlier, he was ruled out of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka due to a knee injury. He has been rested for the home limited-overs series against West Indies and the ongoing white-ball series against New Zealand as well.
The match against New Zealand A will be Bumrah’s first first-class game of the year. His previous appearance was in Guwahati Test against South Africa in November 2025.
Pant misses Ranji Trophy match, 2 India A games due to injury
Pant had sustained a strain during the Irani Cup match against Jammu & Kashmir. Pant-led Rest of India won the game by 167 runs. In the second innings, the southpaw walked in to bat as late as no.8. In his absence from the field, Aryan Juyal kept wickets, and Sarfaraz Khan led the team.
Later, Pant was expected to feature in Delhi's first round of the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2026-27 match but he was unavailable for selection.
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The wicketkeeper-batter has reportedly started light training at the CoE. He is yet to start keeping wickets, but batting drills have already begun.
Both Bumrah and Pant are expected to fly to New Zealand on November 1. The third unofficial Test is scheduled to begin on November 7.
Who replaced Pant in India A?
Kumar Kushagra was named in India A's squad following his ton in the Duleep Trophy 2026 final and in the series opener against Australia A at home. But Kushagra is not playing in the first unofficial Test between India A and New Zealand A.
Kushagra received his maiden T20I call-up after Ishan Kishan suffered a right adductor strain in the T20I series opener. Kushagra is in the squad for the third T20I against New Zealand as well. Kishan has started batting, but he hasn’t recovered from the injury yet. Kushagra is highly unlikely to make his T20I debut as he is currently a backup, and Sanju Samson has been keeping wickets in T20Is. He is likely to rejoin India A squad for the second unofficial Test, which begins on October 31 in Christchurch.
Pant approaching milestone
Pant is nearing a milestone in first-class cricket. He needs 123 more runs to complete 6,000 runs in first-class cricket. In 81 games, he has 5,877 runs from 136 innings at an average of 45.91. His strike rate is highly impressive at 80.59. The 29-year-old has 13 tons and 32 fifties in the format.
Pant and Bumrah's Test record in New Zealand
Bumrah had played two Tests on the 2020 tour. He claimed six wickets in two Tests. He managed just one wicket in one Test and then followed up with five wickets in the second.
Pant is yet to score a half-century on New Zealand soil in Tests. From four innings, he has managed to score 60 runs with a high score of 25.
India A squad for four-day series vs New Zealand A
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (for the first match), Devdutt Padikkal, R Smaran, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Dhruv Jurel (capt, wk), Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, B Sai Sudharsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar, Rishabh Pant (subject to fitness), Shikhar Mohan (for the last two matches).
India’s Test squad for two-Test series vs New Zealand
Shubman Gill (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (vc), Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant (wk)*, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
Pant has been named in the squad, subject to fitness clearance.
Positives and negatives for India ahead of the Test series
In the first unofficial Test, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and the wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel were dismissed cheaply in both innings. Jaiswal registered scores of 17 and 5. Rahul could only score 4 runs after getting out for a duck in the first innings. Jurel scored 1 and 2 in the first and second innings, respectively.
Sai Sudharsan made up for the golden duck in the first innings with a patient 91-run knock. Padikkal was dismissed for 32 in the first innings and then went on to play a game-changing 199. Washington Sundar departed for a duck and then scored a half-century.
Outside chance of Arshdeep making Test debut?
While Auqib Nabi was not picked in the squad for the two Tests, in the press conference ahead of the third T20I, bowling coach Morne Morkel hinted that Arshdeep is in conversation for a red-ball debut.
“On paper and in the back of our minds, there is a nice group of bowlers that can suit all conditions, and Arshdeep is definitely in that conversation,” Morkel said.
"He's a guy that always works hard and ticks all the boxes, so if needed with the red ball, I'm pretty sure he'll be fine," the former Proteas pacer added.
27-year-old Arshdeep Singh's previous first-class appearance was in the Duleep Trophy 2026 semifinal for North Zone against South Zone. He took a couple of wickets in the first innings.
The left-arm pacer has limited experience in red-ball cricket. From 24 first-class games, he has 73 wickets at an average of 30.71. He has two fifers and a four-fer in the format. Arshdeep is hopeful of making his Test debut one day. He was also advised to play County cricket by former head coach Rahul Dravid. He ended up signing for Kent and played a few games for them.