After a long wait, New Zealand have finally announced their squad. Injuries had complicated their preparations, with six to seven players affected during the T20I and ODI serieswhile a few others were already unavailable.

However, there is some encouraging news for New Zealand. Most of their first-choice players feature in the Test squad, giving them a strong group for the upcoming series against India, although a few are still working towards full fitness.

Matt Henry has been included despite not having played in the ongoing ODI series so far. There is a possibility of him returning for the fourth ODI before the teams move into the Test series.

Rachin Ravindra also returns to the squad after missing both the T20I and ODI series because of his shoulder injury. His presence offers New Zealand an important batting option and an additional spin-bowling choice, provided he recovers in time.

With their Test specialists also joining the group, New Zealand have a strong squad under Tom Latham’s captaincy. However, being named in the squad does not mean every player has been cleared to play the opening Test.

Tom Blundell, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra are targeting the first Test, but their availability is not yet confirmed. Blundell needs to recover from a quadricep injury, Conway is recovering from concussion, and Ravindra is working towards overcoming his shoulder problem.

New Zealand’s pace attack will still be missing three options from the England tour earlier this year. An ankle injury keeps Ben Sears out, Zak Foulkes is recovering from a hip problem, and Will O’Rourke is working towards a return to competitive cricket. Jacob Duffy comes into a squad that otherwise retains most of the players from that tour.

New Zealand will hope their recovering players are ready for the opening Test so they can field their strongest possible combination. After the competitive cricket seen during the white-ball leg, the hope is that the Test series produces another closely fought contest.

Tom Latham (captain), Tom Blundell (wicketkeeper), Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner and Will Young.

Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj.

Rishabh Pant’s selection was announced subject to fitness clearance.