Mitchell Santner has been added to the Black Caps squad for the second Test against England in Wellington as they attempt to fix a fielding and batting malaise that contributed to a heavy defeat in the first Test.
Santner, the left-arm spinning allrounder, comes into the squad at the expense of seamer Jacob Duffy and is a good chance to play in the Test which starts on Friday at the Basin Reserve, a venue which is far more spin friendly than Hagley Oval where the Black Caps lost by eight wickets.
Santner's last Test was in Pune, India, where he took 13 wickets in a match which New Zealand won by 113 runs and which sealed the series. They won the next in Wankhede for an historic 3-0 sweep.
“We’ll get up to Wellington and see what the pitch is like and make our decisions there,” Stead said today.
“Mitch’s selection is on the back of what happened in Wellington last year with the pitch very, very spin friendly.”
Australia showed the way at the Basin last year when off-spinner Nathan Lyon took 10 wickets in a comfortable victory for the tourists which sealed the series 2-0.
After dismissing New Zealand for a second time, the English batters wasted no time in chasing down their target. (Source: TVNZ)
New Zealand, by contrast, took four seamers into the match, with part-time spinner Glenn Phillips not bowling in the first innings and taking five wickets in the second.
Stead was not as forthcoming about other changes and would not commit to selecting the in-form Will Young, not included in the Christchurch XI, for the Basin, despite the batting struggles of opener Devon Conway and wicketkeeper Tom Blundell, among others.
Blundell scored 17 in the first innings and a first-ball duck in the second at Hagley Oval, with Conway looking similarly out of form in scoring 2 and 8.
Asked whether a change in the order, with Phillips moving above Blundell into No.6, was an option, Stead replied: “We’ve got a lot of faith in Tom Blundell. Glenn Phillips has done an amazing job batting with the tail as well and has become really adept at that.
“Tom Blundell played some critical innings for us a few Tests back in Asia as well. We think he’s our man to keep coming right and we have a lot of faith in him doing so.”
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Of Young’s potential involvement, Stead said: “I said before the first Test, whether Will Young plays or not doesn’t mean he isn’t a very, very good player.
“The last thing I want from a selector point of view is having revolving chairs the whole time. I don’t think people trust you then as a selector and they don’t trust their role in the team. We don’t want selfish players playing for the team.”
All of which suggests a change to the batting line-up is unlikely.
When asked about Conway’s form – he averages 10 in his last five innings – Stead said: “Everyone wants more all the time. Kane [Williamson] wants more and he got two 50s.
“An opening batsman in New Zealand conditions can be the toughest conditions to play in the world as well. Devon’s a class player. You don’t lose that class over a week, a month. He wants more, don’t get me wrong, but we still have a lot of faith in the way that Devon plays.”
It’s fair to say that former New Zealand wicketkeeper-turned-commentator Ian Smith would disagree.
Commentating for Sport Nation during the Test, Smith said: “Common sense says you must play your best players available in Test cricket.
“Will Young is in much better form than three or four of that New Zealand top seven. How can you not find a place for him? That is just straight-out sentimentality.”
Stead, meanwhile, was eager to find the positives in a Test marred by a near constant series of dropped catches during England’s first innings of 499, a score that effectively won them the game, including Williamson’s return from injury.
“Kane coming back and having a couple of good scores in both innings,” he said. “I thought the bowlers did a good job, on the whole. Their figures could have looked quite different if we had held some catches. Our job now is to fix that.”
Allrounder Nathan Smith enjoyed a positive Test debut, taking the wickets of Jacob Bethell and Joe Root in the space of three balls, and the 26-year-old was perhaps understandably philosophical about the fielding errors which effectively meant he missed out on a five-wicket bag.
“That’s cricket – no one means to drop catches, it’s going to happen,” Smith told 1News. “It’s frustrating, the game could have looked a bit different if we took those catches but that’s the way it panned out.”
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