India's white-ball pace trio of Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar and Auqib Nabi will stay back in New Zealand to help the Test squad prepare for the World Test Championship series against the Black Caps, assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak confirmed on Monday, as the team management firmed up its plans for the two-match contest beginning on November 19.
The three fast bowlers, all part of the squad currently engaged in the five-match one-day international series against New Zealand, will remain with the group after the white-ball leg to bowl in the nets and act as standby reserves for the red-ball side. Their presence will give the Test batters extended practice against left-arm and right-arm pace in New Zealand conditions, and give the team cover in case of injury during the build-up.
"I think three bowlers are going to stay back anyway. Gurnoor, maybe Nabi, and I think Arsh is also staying back," Kotak said at a pre-match press conference in Hamilton on Monday, ahead of the third ODI on Tuesday. The plan, he added, would be finalised by head coach Gautam Gambhir, and could still change, but the intention was clear: the three pacers will be part of the Test preparation.
The decision is part of a wider reshaping of the Indian camp as the tour moves from white-ball to red-ball cricket. The Test specialists will begin their preparations with a camp starting on November 11, with five or six practice sessions scheduled before the first Test.
Skipper Shubman Gill, senior opener KL Rahul, left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Anshul Kamboj will leave for Wellington after the third ODI in Hamilton on Tuesday, along with Mohammed Siraj, to begin the red-ball build-up.
"On top of that, the Test players will go for a camp from the 11th, where we will get five or six sessions. Fingers crossed, we should be ready for the Test series as well," Kotak said. The camp will be held in Wellington, where the first Test will be played at the Basin Reserve from November 19 to 23. The second Test will be held at Hagley Oval in Christchurch from November 27 to December 1.
The coaching team will split to cover both assignments. Head coach Gambhir will stay with the ODI squad for the fourth and fifth one-dayers, scheduled on November 13 and 15 at Mount Maunganui in Tauranga, along with spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule. Kotak and fast-bowling coach Morne Morkel will travel to Wellington with the Test group. "Gambhir stays back with the ODI team, me and Morne will go to Wellington. That's the plan for now," Kotak said.
The split reflects the demands of a tour that straddles two formats in quick succession. The ODI series, which India lead 2-0 after a five-wicket win in Auckland and a four-run victory on the DLS method in Wellington, where the hosts were bowled out for 134, is being played with one eye on the 2027 ODI World Cup. The Test series, meanwhile, carries World Test Championship points and comes against a New Zealand side that is always formidable at home.
Kotak said the conditions in the ongoing ODI series had already provided useful preparation for the Test matches, particularly for the bowling unit. The seaming tracks in New Zealand, which have offered movement and bounce through the first two ODIs, are the kind of surfaces the Test side will face in Wellington and Christchurch, and the bowlers have been able to work on their lengths and lines in match conditions rather than only in the nets.
For the three pacers staying back, the assignment is a chance to press their own claims. Arshdeep Singh, the left-arm seamer, has become a fixture of India's white-ball attack and has long been talked about as a Test prospect, with his ability to swing the new ball and bowl at the death.
Gurnoor Brar, the tall Punjab pacer, and Auqib Nabi, the Jammu and Kashmir seamer, are newer faces at this level, but Nabi in particular has already made an impression on the tour, picking up six wickets in the opening unofficial Test between India A and New Zealand A.
None of the three is in India's 16-man Test squad, and their role in Wellington will be as net bowlers and reserves rather than as members of the playing XI. But net bowlers on an overseas tour are rarely idle: they bowl long spells to the senior batters, simulate the opposition's attack, and are often the first call if a squad member is injured.
For young fast bowlers, a month in the Test environment, working with Morkel and bowling to the likes of Gill and Rahul, is valuable experience in itself.
The plan for the three to stay back also reflects a practical reality of modern touring: with the ODI series ending on November 15 and the first Test beginning on November 19, there is barely time to fly in replacements from India. Keeping bowlers who are already in New Zealand, acclimatised and match-fit, is simpler and safer than calling up fresh faces at short notice.
The three will link up with the Test contingent after the fifth ODI, having completed their white-ball duties.
Kotak was careful to stress that the arrangements were not yet final. "This is the plan. It will be finalised by Gautam, so it can change," he said. "We will just try and see that their loading, their fitness and their practice are adequate, and that they get enough preparation, as much as the conditions permit us." The caution is understandable: team plans on a split tour are made and remade as results, injuries and weather intervene.
The Test series itself is a significant assignment for India. New Zealand at home is one of the toughest challenges in Test cricket, and the Basin Reserve, with its wind and its history of seam movement, has humbled visiting sides before. The World Test Championship points on offer add further weight, and India will want to arrive in Wellington with their preparation complete rather than rushed.
The camp from November 11 is designed to give them that preparation. Five or six sessions over eight days, with the full Test squad and three extra pacers to bowl at them, should allow the batters to adjust to the pace and bounce of New Zealand pitches and the bowlers to find their rhythm. The presence of Kotak and Morkel in Wellington, rather than with the ODI side, underlines how seriously the management is taking the red-ball leg.
For the ODI side, meanwhile, the focus remains on completing a series win. The third ODI in Hamilton on Tuesday is India's chance to seal the series with two matches to spare, and Gambhir's decision to stay with the white-ball group signals that the one-day campaign is not being treated as an afterthought.
With the World Cup in 2027 on the horizon, every ODI is part of a longer build-up, and the management wants the ODI squad to finish the job properly before the attention shifts fully to the Tests.
The coming days will therefore see the Indian camp divide in two: one group in Mount Maunganui finishing the ODI series, the other in Wellington preparing for the Tests, with three young fast bowlers bridging the gap between them.
It is a familiar pattern on modern tours, but it is also a measure of how much the team management values preparation: rather than rushing from one format to the next, India are giving their Test side a full week in Wellington, with fresh bowlers to practise against, before the first ball is bowled at the Basin Reserve.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and The Times of India.)