Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the first two unofficial Tests of India A's tour of New Zealand later this month with a side strain. The BCCI has brought in 21-year-old Jharkhand wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra to replace him.

Pant suffered the injury during the recent Irani Cup while captaining Rest of India, playing a sweep in the first innings. In the next, he came out to bat at No. 8, suffering from a flu as well. He did not keep wicket during the Jammu & Kashmir chase.

Pant has been recovering under the supervision of the BCCI medical team and a decision on his availability for the third and final unofficial Test of the series, on November 7, will be taken later. Early last week, the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) confirmed Pant had made himself unavailable for the Ranji Trophy opener from October 11.

Kushagra played all three games in India A's recent three-match red-ball series against Australia A in Puducherry. He scored a century in the first one.

Kushagra will now leave with the India A squad - led by Dhruv Jurel - for New Zealand on October 16, with the first game starting on October 24 in Lincoln. The second game will be played at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch before the 'A' tour wraps up in Lincoln on November 7.

India's senior team will also be in New Zealand during October and November for five T20Is, five T20Is and two Tests. Pant is their first-choice wicketkeeper in red-ball cricket but is not in the white-ball running.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, R Smaran, Dhruv Jurel (capt, wk), Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar, Kumar Kushagra (wk)