ndia are all set to embark on a long home season which will see them play 13 Tests, eight One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) over the course of the next six months. England (five), Bangladesh (one) and Australia (four), in that order, visit India after New Zealand, who have arrived in the country and are scheduled to play a three-day warm-up game (September 16th – 18th) against Mumbai in Delhi before the start of the three-Test series.

The 13 Tests India will be playing in the upcoming home season, equals the record number of Tests played by India during a home season: in the 1979-80 season, India played 13 Tests, winning four, losing one and drawing eight. 13 is also the most number of Test matches to have ever been played in a single home season, with India being the holders of that record too.

The Indian selection committee met in Mumbai on Monday (September 12th), with Virat Kohli also a part of that meeting, to pick India’s Test squad v New Zealand. The Indian selectors, led by Sandip Patil, ostracised Shardul Thakur and Stuart Binny from India’s 17-man squad for the four-Test series in West Indies and retained the other 15 members for the three-Test home series against the Kane Williamson-led New Zealand.

India’s Test Squad for New Zealand Test Series 2016: Kohli (C), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul (Gautam Gambhir), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Mohammed Shami.

Here is part one of Cricfooty’s review of India’s 15-man squad for the home Tests against New Zealand, who lost their last Test series assignment, against South Africa (1-0), before arriving in India.