Auqib Nabi made his ODI debut in the game Prasidh Krishna got hurt in, and he is set to replace him in New Zealand
Prasidh Krishna’s hamstring will keep him out of all five ODIs in New Zealand, a BCCI source says, and India want him right for the two Tests instead.
Oct 29, 2026
Auqib Nabi got his first ODI cap in Guwahati on 30 September, in the same game Prasidh Krishna left with a left hamstring injury. Prasidh bowled four overs with the new ball, came back for one more in the 31st and then went off. Four weeks later the hamstring has still not recovered, and Nabi is the man expected to take his place for the start of the New Zealand ODI series.
Prasidh will miss all five ODIs, which begin in Auckland on 4 November, a BCCI source told PTI on Wednesday. “Prasidh is recovering well, and he has his match simulation and fitness test lined up at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on November 1 and 2,” the source said. The BCCI has not put out a squad update yet.
Nabi was already in the squad, just for the wrong games
When the selectors named the tour squads on 16 October, they split the ODI group in two. Prasidh was in Shubman Gill’s side for the first three matches, marked subject to fitness clearance. Nabi was only in Shreyas Iyer’s group for the fourth and fifth. Moving him up is the obvious fix, because he is already in New Zealand with India A, and he has just bowled well there.
In the first four-day game in Lincoln, Nabi took three wickets in New Zealand A’s first innings and then three for 28 in the second, all three of them in his opening spell on the last day. India A set 313 and had the hosts 187 for 9 when the light went, so his six wickets left India A one short of a win.
His one ODI went badly. West Indies made 405 for 7 that day, their first 400 in the format, and Nabi went for 84 in 8.5 overs without a wicket. India still won by eight wickets. The red-ball record is why he keeps getting picked: 60 wickets in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy, the most by anyone, for a Jammu and Kashmir side that won the title. If he plays the opener in Auckland, he will do it on his 30th birthday.
The Tests are what India are protecting
India are not writing Prasidh off for the tour. The same source said the team management and the national selectors believe he “should be fully ready for Tests where he is required more than ODIs.” He is one of 16 players in the Test squad for the two matches, in Wellington from 19 November and in Christchurch from 27 November.
That makes the Bengaluru simulation the date that matters. If Prasidh comes through it, reports say he is likely to play the last of India A’s three four-day games, which would give him one red-ball outing on New Zealand pitches before the first Test. If he does not, India have Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Anshul Kamboj in the Test group, which is plenty of seam bowling, if not quite Prasidh’s height and bounce.
Nabi gets something out of this too. He sat through the Sri Lanka Test series in August as Bumrah’s replacement without getting a game. Three ODIs in New Zealand will not earn him a Test cap on their own, but they put him in front of Gill and the coaching staff for a fortnight before anyone has to choose a seam attack for Wellington.