New Zealand have suffered a massive blow on the eve of their Test series against England with a pair of key quicks ruled out of the opening Test in Mount Maunganui.
Experienced right-armer Kyle Jamieson has suffered a re-occurrence to his niggling back injury and will miss both of the Tests against England, while fellow pacer Matt Henry will skip the opening Test of the series that commences on Thursday as he awaits the birth of his first child.
Uncapped duo Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn have received a late call-up to the Black Caps’ squad and could make their Test debut at Bay Oval should they earn selection.
It is the absence of Jamieson that will hurt the Kiwis most, with the 28-year-old having been slated to return from his back complaint for this series after he picked up the injury during New Zealand’s Test tour of England in June.
Jamieson recently made a successful comeback to domestic cricket in New Zealand, but an MRI scan on the affected area had picked up a suspected stress fracture of the back.
“It’s really gutting for Kyle to have this happen after he’d put so much hard work in to getting himself back on the park,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said.
“Since the injury in June we’ve certainly taken a cautious approach to managing his return with regular monitoring by our medical staff which has included scans.
“While Kyle’s not feeling any pain, the evidence is pretty clear he has a stress-fracture and so he’ll return to Christchurch today and have a CT scan on Friday before we decide on the next steps.”
Henry is expected to return to New Zealand’s camp ahead of the second Test of the series in Wellington that starts on February 24.
New Zealand Test squad: Tim Southee (c), Michael Bracewell, Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.
