In an unfortunate turn of events, Indian keeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the forthcoming third and final unofficial Test against New Zealand A, which is scheduled to take place in Lincoln, starting on Saturday, November 7. He was already ruled out of the first two unofficial Tests.
According to a report in Dainik Jagran, Pant has resumed skill training at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE), but his return date hasn’t been finalised yet. Moreover, he is likely to miss the first Test against New Zealand.
“Uncertainty also looms over playing in the first Test match; he was injured in the Irani Cup final. After recovering from the injury, he has resumed skill training. Currently, he is not feeling any pain, nor are any clinical symptoms related to the injury visible. As a precautionary measure, he has been dropped from the India A team for the third unofficial Test match against New Zealand A,” the Dainik Jagran report read.
“After recovering from his injury, Pant has restarted his skill training. Currently, he is not experiencing any pain, and no clinical symptoms related to the injury are visible. However, no definite timeline has been set yet for his return to competitive cricket,” the report added.
Notably, Pant experienced side strain during the recent Irani Cup against Jammu and Kashmir in October. While he scored 18 runs across both innings combined in his team’s 167-run win, he couldn’t take the field on the final day because of fever. He was also ruled out of the first round of the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 campaign for Delhi.
India’s Test squad vs NZ: 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
Note: *Subject to fitness clearance
