Another Blow After Two Losses to India: Henry Ruled Out of Remaining T20s as New Zealand Shuffle Their Pacers
New Zealand, trailing 2-0 in the five-match series after losing two tense T20 internationals against India, have received another piece of bad news — star pacer Matt Henry has been ruled out of the remaining three matches.
Although the team described Henry's absence as part of a 'planned workload management' strategy, Kiwi captain Mitchell Santner said the pacer had a 'tight calf muscle'.
New Zealand will actually play a full three-format series on this tour of India. Overall, the hosts are moving towards picking and choosing their pacers. They do not want to take too much risk with Henry, whom they want available for the ODI series that follows the T20s.
In the second T20 of the series yesterday, the right-arm pacer bowled only 2 overs. Captain Santner himself later explained the reason for his leaving the field.
Henry is not the only concern. Another pacer, Lockie Ferguson, also left the field early as a precaution. He will not play the third T20 in Wellington either; Ferguson will join the team before the last two T20s in Auckland and Hamilton.
Kyle Jamieson, who has not yet played in the current series, is due to join the squad from the third T20. However, he will then skip the following two matches and join the ODI series — all part of the plan to rotate the pacers.
In addition, young pacer Blair Tickner will return to the New Zealand team for the last three T20s and Josh Clarkson for the fourth and fifth matches. Interestingly, both cricketers were originally called up as replacements for Jack Foulkes and Mark Chapman, who were ruled out of this series through injury.
Matt Fisher will also join the team for the third T20 only — meaning the face of the Kiwi pace attack will keep changing from match to match.
On this policy of picking players selectively, head coach Rob Walter said: 'The depth of players we have in our team is extremely fortunate for us. It allows us to use different players to manage the workload on our pacers and ensure they are in a position to give their best performances for the team in the upcoming cricket matches.'
Pacers Jacob Duffy, Nathan Smith and Adam Milne are more or less certain to keep their places throughout New Zealand's ongoing T20 series — amid all this rotation, they remain the consistent mainstay of the team's pace attack.
A long road lies ahead. Before facing Australia in a four-Test series, the Kiwis will play five ODIs and two Tests after the five T20s on the current India tour. Overall, keeping the cricketers free of injury and pressure is their main goal — and even under the pressure of trailing 2-0 in the series, that calculation is now the biggest one in the New Zealand camp.
