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Trent Boult will not be available for the second Test against South Africa with his lack of recent bowling deemed to be put him at too great of an injury risk. It means Trent Boult has likely played his last home international cricket of the season with those having IPL deals expected to be unavailable for the ODI series against the Netherlands at the end of March.

Trent Boult was not in the squad for the opening match of the series in Christchurch as his wife awaited the birth of their third child and though he will join team-mates to bowl in the nets around the second Test it was felt too much of an ask to put him through a game.

Trent Boult To Remain Unavailable For 2nd Test Against Proteas

While the 32-year-old will train with the squad in the build-up to this week’s Test, he’ll next don the New Zealand colours only in June during the team’s tour of England with New Zealand Cricket expected to allow IPL 2022 -bound players to miss the series against the Netherlands.

“[He] is not in a position to be available with his loads and where he’s at,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “Since his wife has been having the baby he’s missed out on a lot of opportunities to play cricket and bowl. We just felt the risk of him playing was far too great at the moment.”

New Zealand have retained an unchanged 15-player squad for the second Test which means no place for a specialist spinner.

Ajaz Patel has yet to return to Plunket Shield action after injury and Stead did not expect conditions to alter much from the first Test where New Zealand’s quicks dominated by bowling out South Africa for 95 and 111. Allrounder Rachin Ravindra is part of the squad should a spin-bowling option be required.

“We considered a [frontline] spin option but didn’t feel as though we needed it on this pitch, through history and the way it was looking after the last Test match,” Stead said.

The absence of Trent Boult and lack of changes to the squad means the same four-strong pace attack that dismantled South Africa the first time around are set to get another chance together.

Matt Henry Bowled Beautifully Throughout The 1st Test: Gary Stead

Matt Henry was the leading light with a career-best 7 for 23 as part of a nine-wicket match haul. Trent Boult’s absence in the first Test paved the way for Matt Henry’s inclusion in the XI, an opportunity he grabbed sensationally setting the tone for New Zealand’s dominant victory by an innings and 276 runs. Matt Henry moved the ball off the seam and finished with match figures of 9 for 55 besides scoring an unbeaten 58 in the 1st innings.

“He’s always been a good bowler and sometimes you need that opportunity to strike and make the most it,” Stead said. “He bowled beautifully throughout the Test but I thought the whole bowling unit bowled really well together and thought that was one of the reasons we were so convincing.”

New Zealand completed a convincing innings-and-276-run win over South Africa, two-and-a-half hours into the third day in Christchurch, to take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

The result means New Zealand have given themselves an opportunity to complete a first series win over South Africa and have registered only their fifth Test win over South Africa in 46 meetings, 18 years after their last victory – in Auckland in 2004.

New Zealand 482 (Nicholls 105, Blundell 96) beat South Africa 95 (Hamza 25, Henry 7-23) and 111 (Bavuma 41, Southee 5-35) by an innings and 276 runs

New Zealand squad: Tom Latham (captain), Tom Blundell, Devon Conway, Colin de Grandhomme, Cam Fletcher, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Rachin Ravindra, Hamish Rutherford, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner, Neil Wagner, Will Young