Gurnoor Brar joins India's Test squad as Kuldeep Yadav is released for domestic cricket

India have called the uncapped fast bowler Gurnoor Brar into their Test squad in New Zealand and released Kuldeep Yadav to play domestic cricket at home

The BCCI's men's selection committee confirmed the change on Saturday, five days before the first of two Tests begins at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on 19 November.

Brar will link up with the Test group in Wellington and so misses the fifth and final one-day international at Bay Oval on Sunday. The board said there would be no replacement for him in the one-day squad.

Rishabh Pant has also joined the squad in Wellington after clearing a fitness test, taking the party for the Test series to 16.

A sixth seamer in New Zealand

Brar is a right-arm quick from Punjab, born in Muktsar in May 2000, who made his India debut in one-day cricket against Afghanistan in June and has yet to play a Test.

He has made his case on this tour. In the second one-day international in Wellington on 7 November he took a career-best 4-30 as New Zealand were bowled out for 134, and India won a rain-shortened match by four runs under the DLS method.

His call-up gives the selectors six specialist seamers in New Zealand, alongside Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Anshul Kamboj, with Nitish Kumar Reddy a further pace-bowling option in the middle order.

Kuldeep released to play at home

Kuldeep will be "released from the Test squad in order to play the ongoing domestic cricket back in India", the selection committee said in its advisory.

The left-arm wrist-spinner had been unlikely to feature in either Test on surfaces expected to reward seam, and the release applies to the red-ball squad alone.

India's domestic Twenty20 competition, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, began this week, and the first round of matches has drawn several internationals back into state cricket.

It leaves India with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, both of them all-rounders, as the only frontline spin options for Wellington and Christchurch.

Pant clears his fitness test

Pant captained Rest of India at the Irani Cup in Srinagar at the start of October and sustained a side strain there, after which he spent several weeks at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

He was cleared by the mandatory fitness test before travelling and has now joined his team-mates in Wellington.

Dhruv Jurel is the other wicketkeeper in the squad, having kept wicket through the white-ball leg of the tour.

India's 16 for the Tests

Shubman Gill captains the side and KL Rahul is his deputy, with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Sai Sudharsan the other specialist batters named.

The full squad is Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj and Gurnoor Brar.

The second Test follows in Christchurch from 27 November, closing a tour that has already taken in Twenty20 and one-day cricket.

One more one-day international first

Before the red-ball cricket, India return to Bay Oval on Sunday for the last match of the one-day series, at the ground where New Zealand beat them by 244 runs on Friday.

That defeat, in which India lost their first three wickets without a run on the board, has put the batting under scrutiny going into the Tests.

India close the one-day leg at Bay Oval on Sunday before the Test series begins at the Basin Reserve five days later.