Pant, whose availability for the tour was subject to fitness after catching viral fever while leading the rest of India in the Irani Cup clash against Ranji Trophy winners Jammu & Kashmir at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar. “He remains under the care of the BCCI Medical Team and is recovering well. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of India A’s first two matches on the upcoming tour of New Zealand due to a left-side strain, with young keeper-batter Kumar Kushagra named as his replacement in the updated squad, the BCCI announced on Monday.
BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said Pant, 29, remains under the medical team’s supervision, with a final call on his participation in the third match starting on October 7 in Lincoln to be taken later.
India A updated squad: Dhruv Jurel (captain & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Smaran, Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, B Sai Sudharsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar, and Kumar Kushagra (wk) (1st and 2nd matches). “A decision on his availability for the third match will be taken at a later stage. The Men’s Selection Committee has named Kumar Kushagra as Pant’s replacement for the first two matches,” added Saikia. Kushagra is coming on the back of a good run in India A red-ball games against Australia A in Puducherry. The shadow ‘A’ series holds immense significance for both sides as a critical warm-up series ahead of the two-game Test series to be played in Wellington and Christchurch, which carries major implications in terms of entering the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Kushagra, the 21-year-old Jharkhand keeper-batter, will join the Dhruv Jurel-led squad for India A’s red-ball shadow tour alongside international stars like Yashasvi Jaiswal, B Sai Sudharsan, KL Rahul, Auqib Nabi, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Manav Suthar, and Washington Sundar. He amassed scores of 113 and 46 to give India A a victory in the first game, while making 10 and 1 in the second clash.
