Taylor set to miss NZ’S T20 match
Ross Taylor’s non-selection for the Twenty20 cricket international, the wicketkeeping spot and the underperforming allrounders loom as the main talking points of tomorrow’s New Zealand squad announcement.
Coach and chief selector Mike Hesson will confirm three squads to face South Africa: a New Zealand XI for Tuesday’s T20 warmup in Auckland, the Black Caps T20 for Friday night’s solitary match at Eden Park and the one-day international squad for the fivegame series starting next Sunday in Hamilton.
Taylor’s name will appear in two of those, with his continued omission from the Black Caps T20 lineup likely to provoke the most discussion.
The selectors offered a clue when they confirmed Taylor would miss Saturday’s Central Stags Ford Trophy playoff against Northern Knights - and any subsequent Stags 50-over matches - to manage their key batsman’s workload before the five ODIS and three tests.
But he will face the South Africans at Eden Park’s Outer Oval on Tuesday, along with Martin Guptill whose hamstring is on the mend and fast bowler Adam Milne whose last international was the World Twenty20 semifinal against England last March. Milne remains only a slim chance to feature in the latter South Africa ODIS.
‘‘It’s a good chance for Ross to have a look at the South Africa bowling attack,’’ said selector Gavin Larsen.
The selectors wouldn’t confirm, but that was a sure fire signal Taylor will again be omitted from the T20 international squad.
Taylor made public his unhappiness at missing the three T20 wins over Bangladesh in January for what were described as performance-based reasons, as his Stags team-mate Tom Bruce made an impressive start which should see him retained for the South Africa match.
Clearly, the selectors favour Bruce’s explosive power in the middle order and Taylor’s fielding is now perhaps seen as a hindrance in high energy T20 matches.
Corey Anderson was the other middle order batting option against Bangladesh and after a blistering unbeaten 94 in the final game looks likely to be retained, too, ahead of Taylor.
Luke Ronchi, back keeping wicket for Wellington after injury, will likely return for team-mate
Tom Blundell in the T20 and ODI squads while Tom Latham appears in the box seat to continue his role with the gloves in the early ODIS at least.
With Anderson still not bowling, and making a slow recovery from his ongoing back problems, he’ll likely play as a batsman in the T20 but miss the ODIS. That again applies heat on Jimmy Neesham to improve with the ball, having shown promising signs in domestic cricket but struggled for captain Kane Williamson’s confidence in the Australia series.
T20 spinner-of-the-moment Ish Sodhi looks likely to get a shot at South Africa next Friday in one final chance to impress before the IPL auction three days later.