Gill is understood to be keen to get some match practice in the red-ball format ahead of his departure to New Zealand for the ODI series that runs from November 4 to 15. Gill’s availability in that series, however, will be limited to just the first three ODIs before he hands over the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer to prepare for the two Tests that follow.
India’s tour runs alongside the shadow tour, with India A playing three unofficial Tests against New Zealand A. While Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul are part of the squad for all three games, Gill will miss the opportunity to feature even in one game as planned earlier, since the third unofficial Test runs from November 7-10 – alongside the second and third ODIs.
Punjab squad: Harnoor Pannu, Vihaan Malhotra, Shubman Gill, Uday Saharan (capt), Jashanpreet Sidhu, Salil Arora (wk), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Ramandeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Emanjot Chahal, Harjas Tandon, Gurnoor Brar, Gursimran Singh, Sanvir Singh, Umesh Yadav
