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Wellington: Batsman Kane Williamson and fast bowler Hamish Bennett are the only uncapped players named on Sunday in the New Zealand cricket team to play three Tests in India next month.
Selectors Daniel Vettori, Mark Greatbatch and Glenn Turner resisted making wholesale changes to the New Zealand lineup in the aftermath of its 4-0 loss to Bangladesh in this month's one-day series.
Williamson, who was the only New Zealand batsman to make a century in Bangladesh, now has the chance to transfer his form from the one-day to the Test arena.
Canterbury fast bowler Bennett played for New Zealand for the first time in Bangladesh and has also been given the chance to try himself in the longer format.
Greatbatch said both Bennett and Williamson had earned their Test selection with sound performances in Bangladesh.
"Kane Williamson is an impressive young talent and his game continues to improve with his involvement in the national team, while Bennett did everything asked of him on the recent tour of Bangladesh and offers the side a genuine pace option," Greatbatch said.
Six members of the 15-man squad - Brent Arnel, Martin Guptill, Chris Martin, Tim McIntosh, Gareth Hopkins and Jeetan Patel - have been playing for the New Zealand A team which has just completed a series of three four-day matches in Zimbabwe. New Zealand won the series 2-0.
"The group of players coming from Zimbabwe have had the ideal preparation with three hard-fought matches in difficult conditions," Greatbatch said.
"The rest of the squad have been training hard and are keen to prove that they are better than the recent performances in Bangladesh.
"We are well aware that we are recent performances are not up to scratch and we need to improve if we are to compete with a very strong Indian side. The team are determined to do so."
Batsman Mathew Sinclair is the only member of the team which played in New Zealand's most recent Test, against Australia in March, to miss selection for the Indian tour.
Brendon McCullum has been included in a New Zealand Test squad for the first time as a specialist batsman after deciding to give up the wicketkeeping duties. Gareth Hopkins has been named as the squad's only specialist keeper.
New Zealand and India meet in Test matches starting on Nov 4, Nov 12 and Nov 20. The teams will then play a five-match limited overs series and a revised New Zealand squad for those matches will be named during the tour.
Test squad Daniel Vettori (capt), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tim McIntosh, Andy McKay, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.
