Gurnoor Barar Joins Indian Test Team for New Zealand Series, Kuldeep Yadav Released

Mumbai, November 14 (Daily Kiran) : Fast bowler Gurnoor Barar has been selected for India’s Test squad ahead of the two-match series against New Zealand. He will not participate in the fifth One Day International (ODI) as he has been released from the ODI team. Meanwhile, spinner Kuldeep Yadav has also been released from the Test squad, as confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday.

According to the BCCI, the men’s selection committee has included Barar in the Test team for the series starting on November 19, 2026, in Wellington. Kuldeep will be allowed to participate in domestic cricket in India.

Barar will join the Test team members and will not be available for the fifth ODI, which will not see a replacement for him. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has already joined the Test squad in Wellington.

In their last outing, India faced a heavy defeat against New Zealand in the fourth ODI, where they collapsed for just 89 runs in response to New Zealand’s target of 334, losing by a staggering 244 runs. Matt Henry from the Kiwi side took six wickets, including those of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer in the first over, all of whom failed to score.

The Indian ODI team for the fifth match includes: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper, vice-captain), Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Aaqib Nabi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Siraj, Yash Thakur, and Kuldeep Yadav.

The updated Test team for India consists of: 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, Mohammad Siraj, and Gurnoor Barar.