Latham set to go and fingers are all crossed

Wicketkeeper Tom Latham is on track to play in New Zealand’s World Cup opener against Sri Lanka in Cardiff tonight and his return from a finger fracture will sideline Tom Blundell.

Latham successfully got through a strenuous training session at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff yesterday to take a significant step closer to being ruled fit to play tonight.

Ramping up his glovework by keeping to faster deliveries, and doing some extra diving and fielding, Latham’s progress got the thumbs up from coach Gary Stead post-training.

“We’ll just see how he scrubs up [today] to make sure there are no illeffects but things are looking more and more positive for him,” said Stead.

“He’s reached all the milestones we’ve wanted him to and he’s probably slightly ahead of time, so that’s positive, and we’ve got options we can look at if he’s not quite right.”

The most likely option in that scenario would be handing Blundell an ODI debut, after some fine performances.

The Wellington gloveman hit 77 for the New Zealand XI against Australia before backing it up with 106 off 89 balls against the West Indies in their warm-up match in Bristol.

Those knocks led to some speculation Blundell could be picked alongside Latham as a specialist batsman, or that he could take the gloves to allow Latham to return to open the batting.

However, Stead played down the likelihood of both keepers being selected.

“It is a discussion point there, but I think it’s likely we’d only have the one keeper that would play.”

It’s probably the right call for balance — promoting Latham at short notice would be an extreme move, and Blundell’s historical record doesn’t demand automatic selection, despite his promising displays.

But if there are further injuries or struggles for form, Blundell has shown he won’t be out of his depth if called on.

For now, though, it looks like he won’t be required, as Latham is feeling positive he’ll be good to go tonight.

“Things are feeling really good. I tried to increase things a little more in terms of the targets we wanted to hit. We’ll still see how it pulls up — I’ve got to have a hit against our bowlers [today].

“We’re taking it step by step. Hopefully the fracture’s healed by now and it’s more a maintenance thing — we’ve got all the protection around it we need.”

Now all Latham needs to do is to recover well and get through today’s training unscathed to be pulling on the gloves against Sri Lanka.

And with two apt words, he summed up how he and many New Zealand cricket fans will be feeling about his healing digit.

“Fingers crossed.”

We’re taking it step by step, hopefully the fracture’s healed and it’s a maintenance thing. Wicketkeeper Tom Latham