Corey Anderson In, Ross Taylor Out As New Zealand Pick T20 Squad For Bangladesh Series
Dec 26, 2016 at 11:58 AM
All-rounder Corey Anderson has returned to the national squad while star batsman Ross Taylor has been ruled out of New Zealand’s 14-member T20 squad against Bangladesh. Going by the homes conditions, the hosts have picked all-rounder Ben Wheeler and hard-hitting batsman Tom Bruce in the squad too.
Anderson, who was out of the game due to a back injury, has finally been re-called into the side but only as a batsman. Ross Taylor, who recently had an eye surgery was kept out intentionally but is likely to return to the domestic T20s as per the selector Gavin Larsen.
However, the national selector seemed excited about pushing the talented and promising Tom Bruce to play cricket at the higher level.
“Tom has been one of the leading players in the Super Smash [the domestic T20 competition] the past two years and is one of the cleanest strikers of a cricket ball in the country. He has averaged 76 at a strike-rate of 174 so far this season, so Tom has proven himself to be a very dangerous player. Power is a critical element to Twenty20 cricket, so to have him alongside the likes of Martin [Guptill], Corey and the two Colins [Munro and de Grandhomme] is an exciting prospect.”
Speaking about left-arm seamer Ben Wheeler, who last played at Durban against South Africa in 2015, Larsen said the 25-year-old is a great prospect and has put in lot of hard work to make it that far for himself. The all-rounder though managed just eight wickets and 58 runs in his six previous outings in ODIs and is yet to make his T20 debut.
“Ben has put in a lot of hard work to get to this point again, so we’re looking forward to having him back in the mix. His ability to swing the ball at a decent clip can trouble any batsman, as he has shown in domestic cricket this season.”
Speedster Trent Boult has been picked in-spite coach Mike Hesson’s comments on the player rotation policy, and how he will not feature in each of the T20 game. Hesson mentioned in an interview that in-order to give him space to prepare for the longer format, Boult will miss the first T20. Southee, on the other hand, will miss all three T20s to work alongside Boult for Tests.
Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi and batsman Colin Munro have retained their place while Colin Grandhomme is likely to get his first T20 cap for the Kiwis.
Squad:
Kane Williamson (c), Corey Anderson, Martin Guptill, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin Munro, Mitchell Santner, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Jimmy Neesham, Luke Ronchi (wk), Ish Sodhi, Ben Wheeler, Colin Grandhomme.