Trent Boult is just a few minutes down the road in his Mount Maunganui home, but despite him being a short stroll to Bay Oval and with the issues the Black Caps face, management has ruled out any chance of him playing in the first Test against England.
The Black Caps are scrambling two days out from the day-night Test starting on Thursday, with Kyle Jamieson ruled for the series through a suspected stress fracture in his back, while Matt Henry’s also unavailable due to the impending birth of his first child. It’s meant call-ups for potential debutants Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn.
But in the background of the whole picture is Boult – New Zealand’s fourth-highest Test wicket-taker, who opted out of his NZC contract to pursure T20 franchise opportunities. He’s back from his latest gig in the UAE and is a stone’s throw from the rest of the squad.
“We’ve discussed it internally but our decision was not to go with Trent on this occasion,” coach Gary Stead said at the ground today.
“I guess since Trent chose to give up his contract about four or five months ago, whenever it was, then we’ve made it clear that priority would go to others and that’s the way it’s gone.”
In four matches so far this Plunket Shield season, Otago’s Duffy has taken 22 wickets at an average of 21.36. Kuggeleijn, on the the other hand, had just four in three appearances for Northern Districts.
“It’s a stage of a little bit of rebuilding for us. But, Scott and Jacob are both resilient, they both offer something a little bit different as well and I’d be very surprised if at least one of them doesn’t debut in this test match.”
That would make for a whirlwind trip for Duffy. Since being called up this morning, his flight from Dunedin to Auckland was then cancelled due to Cyclone Gabrielle, instead flying through Christchurch to Hamilton where he’ll then drive to the Mount, only joining the team tonight.
As for Jamieson, it’s a significant blow. Black Caps management had been very careful in easing back into a workload to get him ready for international cricket again. He’s played club, domestic and New Zealand XI cricket, most recently in Hamilton against England where he told 1News it was "another day to stack on the work he’s done so far".
Perhaps bizarrely, Jamieson’s felt no pain, but scans have revealed the recurrence of the stress fracture in his back that’s kept him out of international cricket since June.
“It does look like a bad bit of news. For us we’ve tried to be reasonably conservative with Kyle right through his rehab process to make sure we gave him the best chance of coming back and he was tracking beautifully. It came as a real surprise to us. He hasn’t had a lot of back pain, at all, so from our point of view it was certainly a surprise and a surprise to Kyle as well,” Stead explained.
He’ll now head to Christchurch today and have a CT scan on Friday.
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