India’s New Zealand Squads: Kamboj and Kushagra Rise, Jadeja’s ODI Evening

That four-day match in Puducherry still gets its own page in my notebook. India A against Australia A, whites, an almost empty gallery, and a twenty-one-year-old behind the stumps: Kumar Kushagra. He made a hundred that day. What I remember better than the number is his footwork, the way his weight shifted to the back foot before the spinner had released, as if the decision were being made in his hips rather than his hands. Seven months later, on October 17, 2026, the BCCI named India’s ODI and Test squads for the New Zealand tour, and that boy’s name was in the squad for the last two ODIs. The headline called it a maiden call-up. I do not read headlines. I read how many years of unseen work are stacked underneath a call-up.

The announcement did not arrive in one day. One squad for the first three ODIs, another for the last two. Split squads are not new in Indian cricket, but this time the reason is unusually visible. The two-Test series begins four days after the fifth ODI. So Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Prasidh Krishna and Anshul Kamboj leave the ODI group after three matches to prepare for red-ball cricket. Shreyas Iyer leads the last two ODIs in Rahul’s absence, with Tilak Varma, Auqib Nabi, Kumar Kushagra and Yash Thakur coming in.

This is not politics, it is calendar arithmetic. With the 2027 ODI World Cup less than a year away and World Test Championship final qualification highly unlikely, India are still leaning towards the red ball. Wisden asked why Test cricket is being prioritised at this moment. The question is fair. But when I look at it through a player’s eyes I see something else: the split squad is a stress test of the Indian system. Who can carry a body from one format into another, and who cannot, becomes the instrument of measurement on this tour.

Anshul Kamboj’s rise is not a surprise; it is domestic arithmetic finally being settled. Consistency in domestic cricket and for India A earned him a place in both squads. His Test debut came on the England tour of 2026, fast-tracked after Arshdeep Singh’s injury. His ODI debut arrived almost identically: pulled out of India A’s four-day game against Australia A to play the third ODI against West Indies after Prasidh’s injury. A long run with the A side has now become a senior call-up, and with a question mark over Prasidh’s fitness he could play the first three ODIs. I have watched him in domestic cricket. His flaw is not pace and it is not patience; it is that nobody has yet seen him tire under fifty overs of pressure. That is his next examination.

Ishan Kishan’s story runs the other way: he was lost and has returned. He had not played an ODI since the 2026 World Cup until the Afghanistan series in June, where he took the chance with a rapid hundred in Lucknow. Four months later he is vice-captain for the fourth and fifth ODIs in New Zealand. In between he played and performed across formats, including a double hundred in the Duleep Trophy final as captain. He was already among the first names in the T20I squad; now he may become a permanent ODI face. His value to me is not statistical but rhythmic. He reads the tempo of a match from behind the stumps, and his aggression is built on footwork rather than on the strength of his hands.

Naman Dhir’s story has been written fastest of all. Within a month of his international debut he has pushed into World Cup conversations, even if that remains a long shot. He has played every match since his call-up, found a place in the T20I squad for New Zealand, and then in the ODIs. A batting all-rounder who bowls handy off-spin, he is the archetype of a Gautam Gambhir player. He is likely in the squad as an alternative to Washington Sundar, able to bat in the lower order and bowl five or six overs of finger spin. But caution is required: one month of rhythm is not one season of consistency. I watched a full innings of his in which the intent to attack spin was clear but the footwork was reactive. Age can fix that, if the system puts him in the right format at the right time.

Kumar Kushagra will already be in New Zealand, called into the India A squad for the three unofficial Tests against New Zealand A as Pant’s replacement. He had a stellar Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year, then a century in the Duleep Trophy final for East Zone, then a hundred for India A in Puducherry. His debut is still unlikely, because ahead of him in the wicketkeeping order is his state captain, Ishan Kishan. That is the most important lesson here: Kushagra’s call-up is a passport, not a debut.

The list of those left out says more. Yashasvi Jaiswal could not find a place in the 50-over squad even with Gill and Rahul absent from the last two ODIs. He has two hundreds in his last three ODIs, including one against Afghanistan in June in his most recent 50-over fixture. He is in the India A squad for the four-dayers against New Zealand A, which tells you the management is prioritising the Test series over white-ball games. Nothing here is Jaiswal’s fault; the fault lies in a format-based hierarchy.

Ravindra Jadeja’s ODI career may be over. Naman Dhir’s emergence and Jadeja’s own waning white-ball powers have cost him his place. He has two wickets in five ODIs this year at 135. Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Dhir sit ahead of him. This is not an elegy, it is an accounting of overs.

The strangest omission is Manav Suthar. He is in the India A squad for New Zealand but not in the senior Test squad. Perhaps because conditions outside the subcontinent will not suit spin, and because Gambhir prefers batting depth to bowling strength, which is where Washington trumped Suthar. Yet the left-arm spinner has had a brilliant start in international cricket: 23 wickets in three Tests at 17.34, including six on debut. He also had a strong County Championship season with Warwickshire, 27 wickets in six matches at 19.92. I have checked those numbers and they are the biggest discomfort of all: selection is not a merit list, it is a fit list.

Here is where I differ from the conventional reading. The press builds a winners-and-losers list because it makes the story easy. Inside the dressing room the calculation is different: who can carry how many overs in which format, who can recover a body in four days, whose batting adds depth lower down. Kushagra’s call-up is not excitement, it is an organisational decision; he will not play now, but the system has registered him. Jadeja’s omission is not a retirement announcement, it is a comparative valuation of three spin all-rounders. Jaiswal’s absence signals that India’s white-ball cricket is tilting towards format specialists.

The second thing nobody is stressing: the first Test begins four days after the fifth ODI. Some bodies recover in four days, some do not. Rishabh Pant and Prasidh Krishna are both subject to fitness clearance, and Jasprit Bumrah’s workload is a permanent question. The schedule is a risk-management exercise for the board and an unequal fight for the players.

In my 212-name spreadsheet, Kushagra, Dhir and Kamboj are now written in a different colour. All three entered international cricket through domestic dust, through someone else’s injury, or through one silent season of work. None of them may play in New Zealand. The tour still matters to them, because the system now remembers their faces.

I do not look for the finished player. I dig for the boy who survived the academy. The question now is whether the Indian system can hold its patience with these boys, or whether the next injury bulletin sends it hunting for a new name. I am interested in how much white-ball spin bites in New Zealand conditions. I am more interested in how vice-captain Kishan sets a field in the fourth ODI. That is where we will learn whether these call-ups are an investment in the future or a temporary adjustment to a calendar.