Pant ruled out of India's ODI series against New Zealand
Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has suffered a side strain with Dhruv Jurel replacing him
ESPNcricinfo staff
11-Jan-2026 • 11 hrs ago
Rishabh Pant played in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy for Delhi • PTI
Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against New Zealand with a side strain. The India wicketkeeper-batter picked up the injury during practice ahead of the first match on Sunday. Dhruv Jurel has been named his replacement and has already linked up with the squad in Vadodara.
"Pant felt a sudden onset [of] discomfort in his right lateral abdominal area while batting in the nets during India's practice session on Saturday afternoon at the BCA Stadium, Vadodara," a BCCI statement said. "He was taken for MRI scans immediately and the BCCI medical team had a detailed discussion with an expert on his clinical and radiological findings. Pant has been diagnosed with a side strain (oblique muscle tear) and is subsequently ruled out of the ODI series."
Pant's injury does not affect India's first-choice XI, with KL Rahul ahead of him in the pecking order as the designated ODI wicketkeeper-batter. Pant was in the middle of a decent run of form, though, captaining Delhi to the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals, and scoring two fifties in six innings along the way.
Jurel, who is yet to make his ODI debut, will deputise for Rahul. He comes into the squad on the back of six fifty-plus scores in his last seven List A innings. He turned two of those into centuries as well for Uttar Pradesh, a return to form after scores of 14, 13, 0 and 2 in the Test series against South Africa last year.
After the first ODI in Vadodara, the teams play in Rajkot (January 14) and Indore (January 18) before shifting focus to the five-match T20I series, in Nagpur (January 21), Raipur (January 23), Guwahati (January 25), Visakhapatnam (January 28) and Thiruvananthapuram (January 31), which will set them up for the T20 World Cup, to be played in India and Sri Lanka in February-March. Neither Pant nor Jurel figure in India's T20I squad.