India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is on course to join the Test squad in New Zealand, with a final fitness decision due at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru on Thursday, 12 November.

Pant, 29, is completing a two-day match simulation at the CoE, which began on 10 November, to test whether the side strain he suffered during the Irani Cup has fully healed. Medical staff will use the sessions to judge whether he can handle the demands of batting and keeping wicket across a Test match, according to Cricbuzz.

A month on the sidelines

Pant picked up the injury in early October while captaining Rest of India against Jammu and Kashmir in the Irani Cup. He failed an initial fitness test at the CoE on 1 November and has been in rehabilitation at the facility since 23 October.

The injury forced him to miss the India A tour of New Zealand, where he had been named subject to fitness. He has not played international cricket since the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

What clearance would mean

If he is cleared on 12 November, Pant is expected to fly to New Zealand the same day and link up with the squad in Wellington before the two-Test series. The second Test is scheduled to begin in Christchurch on 27 November, according to CricTracker.

India have named Dhruv Jurel as the second wicketkeeper in the 16-member squad, captained by Shubman Gill, so Pant’s return would give the tourists their first-choice keeper for the series.