Rishabh Pant ruled out of the final India A match and left in doubt for the Wellington Test

Rishabh Pant will miss every match of India A's tour of New Zealand after being ruled out of the final four-day game, leaving his place in the first Test in doubt

Pant has been ruled out of the third unofficial Test against New Zealand A in Lincoln, a four-day match starting on November 7, after fitness assessments on November 1 went against him. Reporting a week earlier had suggested he was on course to return for it.

The decision means the wicketkeeper will play no part at all in the three-match A-team series, and will go into the Test series without a competitive innings behind him.

Pant was named in India's 16-member Test squad on October 16 subject to fitness clearance, and no date has been set for the evaluation that would grant it. The first Test against New Zealand begins at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on November 19.

A strain carried since the Irani Cup

Pant picked up a left-side strain in early October while captaining Rest of India against Jammu and Kashmir in the Irani Cup in Srinagar, and has not played competitive cricket since.

He had already missed the first two unofficial Tests of the New Zealand tour, with Kumar Kushagra added to the A squad as cover.

The latest call on the Lincoln match was taken as a precaution rather than in response to a setback, with the management unwilling to rush him back.

No timeline for a return

Pant has resumed skill training at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and is reported to be working without pain, but a BCCI source told PTI that "there is still no confirmed timeline for his return to competitive cricket".

He is understood to need a run of skill sessions and match simulation before the medical team will conduct a formal fitness evaluation, and only that assessment can clear him for the Test side.

India head coach Gautam Gambhir offered nothing firmer on Sunday. "I don't have an update yet on Rishabh Pant, will share when I get," he said.

Jurel waiting at Hagley Oval

Dhruv Jurel, the other wicketkeeper in the Test squad, has led India A through Pant's absence and has an obvious claim on the gloves in Wellington.

Jurel made 105 in the second unofficial Test at Hagley Oval, where New Zealand A's first innings of 424 was answered by India A's 346.

At stumps on day three of that match India A were 32 for 0 in their second innings, still 46 runs behind.

A squad with options but no like-for-like

The Test squad is captained by Shubman Gill, with KL Rahul as his deputy, and carries Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy among the batting and all-round options.

None of them replaces what Pant offers at number five overseas, and Jurel's promotion would leave India a batter light on experience rather than on runs.

Pant is in neither of India's ODI squads for the tour, so the A-team programme was his only competitive route back before the Tests.

Little time before Wellington

The five-match ODI series runs from November 4 in Auckland to November 15 at Mount Maunganui, filling the fortnight before the Test series begins.

With the Lincoln match gone, anything Pant does between now and Wellington will be done on the training ground rather than in the middle.

India's two-Test tour then closes in Christchurch from November 27.

India play the first Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve on November 19, with Pant's involvement resting on a fitness evaluation that has yet to be scheduled.

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