Astle doubtful, Anderson out
Spinner Ajaz Patel has received another late Black Caps callup, this time for the one-day internationals against Pakistan with Todd Astle rated a 50-50 chance of remaining on tour.
Coach Gary Stead confirmed Patel, opener George Worker and fast bowler Lockie Ferguson as the final names in the 15-man squad for the three-match ODI series starting on Thursday (1am NZT).
Left-armer Patel, who made a tidy debut in the first Twenty20 after being a late addition, was summoned as cover for legspinner Astle whose knee injury has Stead concerned.
Already without World Cup certainties Martin Guptill (calf) and Mitchell Santner (knee), the squad farewelled Corey Anderson who returns home for a scan on the heel injury that ruled him out of the third T20 when Pakistan completed a 3-0 clean sweep.
Astle was a strong chance to fill Santner’s spin bowling allrounder spot in the ODIs but will definitely miss game one and is touch and go for the rest, which opens the door for Patel to potentially partner Ish Sodhi again.
Having played well for New Zealand A, Astle took a few days off to rest what was described as a kneecap irritation. He trained on Monday with Stead rating him 50-50 although his condition had improved.
‘‘It’s a wait and see how Todd scrubs up tomorrow and we’ll have more of an idea whether he’s a chance for the second and third ODIs. If the answer is no it’s probably going to rule him out for the tests as well,’’ Stead said.
New Zealand return to Abu Dhabi where Patel and Sodhi took a combined 2-51 off eight overs and they fell two runs short of Pakistan’s 148-6 in the T20 series opener. Since then, Pakistan spinners Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan clearly outpointed New Zealand’s notably when the tourists lost 8-23 on Monday to be skittled for 119 in game three.
‘‘T20 cricket can be so hit and miss so it can be hard to get a good gauge. Purely on figures and results we would have hoped to get more out of our spinners but the areas they’ve been landing haven’t been that bad,’’ Stead said.‘‘Pakistan are very good players of spin and we haven’t made the inroads higher up the order.’’
With Trent Boult and Matt Henry joining the ODI squad alongside Ferguson and Tim Southee there’s a strong pace lineup to choose from and Stead said a balance of three quicks and one spinner remained in their thinking, depending on the pitch.
Ferguson bouncing out Fakhar Zaman in game three was an example of how they could unsettle the Pakistan batsmen if the barrage was well directed.
In Guptill’s absence, Worker gets a chance to build on his impressive ODI average of 37.5 from seven matches but needs to lift from the NZA series where he scored 12, 15 and 8 in one-dayers against Pakistan A.
With the arrivals of Boult, Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and BJ Watling it’s a vastly more experienced New Zealand ODI side and they won their last two UAE series against Pakistan in 2009 (2-1) and 2014 (3-2), taking out the deciding match both times.