India Test squad in Wellington: Pant joins, first Test from 3.30 am IST on Thursday

India’s 16-man Test squad is gathering in Wellington, with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant now with the group, ahead of the first Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve. Play starts at 11 am local time on Thursday, 19 November, which is 3.30 am in India. The second Test, at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, begins on Friday, 27 November, at the same Indian time, the BCCI fixture list shows.

The squad took its final shape in a BCCI media advisory on Saturday, 14 November, which added fast bowler Gurnoor Brar and released wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav to play domestic cricket. Brar sat out the final one-day international, with no replacement named; India won it by 22 runs on Sunday, 15 November, to take the series 3-1. Kuldeep had been part of a 14-man squad for that match.

Two players from the Telugu states

Andhra all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and Hyderabad pacer Mohammed Siraj are both in the Test group. Siraj is the only player named in both the updated Test squad and the squad for the last ODI, in which he took 2 for 50 and made 14 not out with the bat.

How the squad lines up

Shubman Gill leads the side, with KL Rahul as vice-captain and Pant and Dhruv Jurel as the two wicketkeepers. The seam group is Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj and Brar. With Kuldeep gone, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar are the spin options left. The batters are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Sai Sudharsan alongside Gill, Rahul and the two keepers.

Kuldeep returns to a home season in which the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the national T20 competition, began on Saturday, 14 November.