Jimmy Neesham, who was ruled out from the first Test due to rib injury, has been kept out of the second Test as well due to the same reasons that is to be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata from Friday. New Zealanders problems seems to find no stop as the flight that was supposed to carry Mark Craig’s replacement Jeetan Patel, has been cancelled. The off-spinner will now arrive to India on Wednesday midnight. New Zealand will hopefully play three spinners unless the pitch is dramatically different from the one in Kanpur or the ones they have been using recently. Neesham, who suffered the rib injury batting in the nets in Delhi, is not the first man to be ruled out on this tour. Tim Southee injured his ankle even before the three-day warm-up game in Delhi.
Speaking to Espncricinfo.com, coach Mike Hesson said, “Neesham’s injury will rule him out of at least this Test. That takes away options in terms of changing our balance a bit. But that’s okay. We are not able to get any replacement in time who is a batting allrounder. Unfortunately, we have got a few other injuries at home as well, which makes that really challenging.”
Craig suffered a side strain bowling in the second innings of the Kanpur Test. He came out to bat, but could not resist for long. If the Kolkata pitch is similar to that of Kanpur, then Patel might just make his appearance for the Test. He is coming from England where he scalped 69 wickets in County Championship. New Zealand also have batting dilemma with regards to Martin Guptill’s poor form especially with his scores of 21, 0, 15 and 0. With Neesham unavailable once again, the Kiwis have very few options left to juggle with batsmen. ALSO READ: Jimmy Neesham: Will pay to watch AB de Villiers
Hesson added, “We are restricted in some of our options. We have got Henry Nicholls in our group. Once again he has never played in India but played really nicely in South Africa in conditions that once again are distinctly different. He is a smart lad. He spent the last week trying to keep evolving his game plan. He is an option for us. And we will look at the conditions first before making a call.”
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