Guptill in midst of move to the middle

Opener to drop to down order for Auckland in bid to regain his position in NZ test team

Martin Guptill will drop into Auckland’s middle order in a bid to regain his place in New Zealand’s test team. Having been dropped from the openers’ job for the home international summer, Guptill, desperate to get back in the squad, is hoping to force an argument for a middle order position.

Tom Latham and Jeet Raval have opened in the four tests this season — Raval having marked his debut with two half centuries and an average of 33 — and with only three tests against South Africa to come this summer, the door to be an opener appears shut on the tall Aucklander in the short term.

“I’ve had a couple of conversations with [national coach] Mike Hesson about the best way for me to look at getting back in the test team,” Guptill said yesterday.

“We both came to the conclusion that maybe having a crack in the middle order was the best way forward.”

With captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor having a lock on Nos 3 and 4, and an allrounder filling No 6, it leaves Henry Nicholls’ No 5 spot as the logical target.

Guptill could get a maximum four Plunket Shield games in his new role before the end of the season.

The 30-year-old is no stranger to the middle order. He played three successive tests at No 5 against Bangladesh and Australia in February/March 2010.

The result: 343 runs at 68.6 including his best test score, 189, and three 50s. That century stand was part of a then record sixth-wicket partnership against all countries, 339 with captain Brendon McCullum, since overtaken by Williamson and BJ Watling’s 365 against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 2014-15.

There have been three tests at No 3, 177 runs at 35 between 2009 and 2011, a duck in one innings at No 4 in India in 2010; and a miss against England at Leeds in 2013, one and three, batting at No 6, which was