Fringe Black Caps get chance to impress
Central Stags batsman Will Young gets another chance to prove his fitness for a potential test backup role when he faces the touring Indian squad in a three-day warmup match in Hamilton starting today.
Young and a handful of fringe contenders for the wider Black Caps squad for the two-test series, starting in Wellington next Friday, provide Virat Kohli’s India with their solitary shakedown for a New Zealand XI at Seddon Park.
Captain Daryl Mitchell – who made a successful test debut against England at Hamilton in November – is an outside chance of making an extended test squad while fellow allrounder Jimmy Neesham, legspinner Ish Sodhi and seamers Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn also get a chance to enhance their credentials in the long format.
The match will not have firstclass status and both squads will be able to use more than 11 players during the game.
Young was set to make his test debut for the injured Kane Williamson against Bangladesh in Christchurch last March before the match was abandoned because of the mosque shootings.
He then suffered a shoulder injury which required major surgery and a long rehabilitation, to regain full strength for fielding and particularly throwing.
In three top-level innings since his return, Young, 27, scored 62 for Central Stags against Otago in a Ford Trophy match, then 54 and 26 for New Zealand A in their four-day matches against India A.
Joining Young will be three other emerging batsmen: Finn
Allen, Rachin Ravindra and Henry Cooper, all of whom have been amongst the runs this season in various competitions.
Allen scored a century for a New Zealand XI against England team at Cobham Oval, Cooper has impressed for Northern Districts in both the Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy, and Ravindra scored his maiden List A century for the Firebirds, while also featuring for New Zealand A.
Players from the Auckland Aces, Canterbury and Otago Volts Ford Trophy squads were not considered for selection as they were involved in yesterday’s elimination final and Sunday’s final.
New Zealand’s selectors are expected to name their test squad on Monday for the first test at the Basin Reserve.
India, meanwhile, have the likes of prolific batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane bolstering their test squad along with spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and seamer Umesh Yadav.
Another frontline paceman in the test squad, Ishant Sharma, remains in India as he faces a fitness test tomorrow on an ankle injury suffered on January 21.