Bumrah returns, Pant awaits fitness clearance in India’s Test squad for New Zealand

Jasprit Bumrah is back in the India Test squad for the tour of New Zealand. The selectors named 16 players on 16 October for a two-match series that starts in Wellington on 19 November. Shubman Gill is captain and KL Rahul is his deputy.

Bumrah has not played a Test since November 2025, and his workload is being managed so that he is fit for the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy early next year and the 2027 ODI World Cup. He is not part of either ODI squad. He is training at home in Ahmedabad and is expected to do fitness work at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru before he travels.

Pant and Prasidh need fitness clearance

Rishabh Pant is in the squad but must first be cleared as fit. He suffered a left side strain while captaining Rest of India in the Irani Cup and was ruled out of India A’s first two unofficial Tests against New Zealand A. He is expected to play the third, in Lincoln from 7 to 10 November. Dhruv Jurel is the second wicketkeeper.

Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna has also been picked subject to fitness. Scans showed a left hamstring strain rather than a tear.

The full India Test squad: Shubman Gill (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, 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 and Mohammed Siraj.

Sai Sudharsan is back after a toe injury kept him out of the Test series in Sri Lanka. Akash Deep and Kamboj also return. Kamboj made his Test debut in Manchester in July 2025. Left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who took 16 wickets in four innings in Sri Lanka, missed out. Jadeja and Washington Sundar are the spin-bowling all-rounders, with Kuldeep Yadav as the specialist spinner.

Split captaincy for the ODIs

The Tests come after five ODIs, which start in Auckland on 4 November. Gill captains the first three ODIs and Shreyas Iyer leads in the last two. Gill, Rahul and Kamboj are named only for the first three. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are named for all five games.

Wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra gets his first India call-up for the final two ODIs. Arshdeep Singh returns to the ODI side, and Ravindra Jadeja is left out of it.

Also read: Former Hyderabad spinner Pragyan Ojha to head India’s men’s selection panel; Ramesh Powar inducted