Ross Taylor injury concern for New Zealand ahead of England tour
The batter pulled up with a calf problem while batting as the squad returned to training
Ross Taylor limped out of New Zealand’s first training session ahead of their departure for England with a calf injury.
He was batting in the marquee that has been built at the high performance centre in Lincoln to enable the squad to train over the next couple of weeks. New Zealand coach Gary Stead expected an update on the seriousness of the problem later on Monday.
“The reports I’ve had so far is it’s more precautionary than anything but we’ll see how he scrubs up,” Stead told reporters.
“You are always worried when any injuries happen but someone of Ross’s standing and calibre as a Test player you always have a little bit of a concern. Fingers crossed everything is good and we still have time on our side, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the medical team say.”
The latter stages of Taylor’s home summer were disrupted by injury with a hamstring niggle keeping him out of two of the ODIs against Bangladesh.
The New Zealand squad are due to depart for England in the middle of May ahead of the two-Test series that begins on June 2 to be followed by the World Test Championship final against India in Southampton.
Stead hinted that even if there was some doubt over Taylor’s immediate fitness he would likely make the trip. “Ross has a great Test record behind and we want him in our team,” he said.
New Zealand are likely to be without their IPL-based Test players – Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson and Mitchell Santner – for at least the first match against England and potentially both given the strict quarantine rules now in place for arrivals from India that require 10 days isolation.
They have named an expanded squad of 20 for the two England Tests which will be trimmed to 15 ahead of the WTC final.
Devon Conway is in line for a Test debut while the uncapped Rachin Ravindra has also been included. All the players in New Zealand have had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and will have their second before leaving.
Monday was the start of two training camps they will have prior to departure with conditions created to as closely resemble what they’ll encounter in England as possible.
“We’ve got two open wickets, the groundstaff have done an amazing job in getting the facilities up pretty close to what I think English conditions would be like then we have the marquee as well,” Stead said. “We are still a month away from playing England so there’s still four weeks of good, solid preparation so today is the start of that for us.”
