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India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against New Zealand after sustaining a side strain during a practice session in Vadodara, with Dhruv Jurel named as his replacement.

 

Pant suffered the injury while batting in the nets ahead of the series opener on Sunday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that scans revealed an oblique muscle tear, forcing him out of the series.

 

“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.”

 

Dhruv Jurel, who has already joined the squad in Vadodara, will serve as the reserve wicketkeeper behind KL Rahul. Pant’s absence does not disrupt India’s first-choice XI, with Rahul remaining the preferred wicketkeeper-batter in the ODI format.

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Pant had shown encouraging form in domestic cricket, leading Delhi to the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals and scoring two half-centuries in six innings during the tournament.

 

Jurel, yet to make his ODI debut, has earned the call-up after a strong run in List A cricket, registering six scores of fifty or more in his last seven innings for Uttar Pradesh, including two centuries. The performances marked a return to form following a difficult Test series against South Africa last year.

 

The ODI series begins in Vadodara before moving to Rajkot on January 14 and Indore on January 18. Attention will then shift to the five-match T20I series, which will be played across Nagpur, Raipur, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram later this month. Neither Pant nor Jurel has been named in India’s T20I squad.

India's updated ODI squad Shubman Gill (capt), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer (vice-capt), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk)