Conway set to miss IPL till May; Ben Sears called-up for Christchurch Test

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be without their dependable opener Devon Conway, who has been ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) till May. The left-handed opener had a small fracture in the joint of his left thumb, and his recovery is likely to take at least eight weeks. 

In Conway’s absence, CSK will have to try out another opening pair, with reports suggesting that Rachin Ravindra is likely to slot in at the top of the order. For New Zealand, though, their batting will be largely unchanged from the first Test but they have been dealt with a huge blow in the bowling department. 

The BlackCaps will be without Will O’Rourke, their quickest bowler in the arsenal. While there were rumours that the recently retired Neil Wagner could make a swift comeback, New Zealand’s head coach, Gary Stead, put that thought to rest. 

"We didn't get there (recalling Wagner) with it," Stead said. "He had made his decision he was comfortable with it. We reconsidered a number of things but we thought in this case that the pace of Ben Sears and what he's bought to to us and international cricket so far is the difference that we needed.

In all likelihood, Ben Sears is set to make his Test debut with a bowling average of 27.03 in First-Class cricket, where he has picked up 58 wickets. However, Stead did admit that O’Rourke’s absence will be a big loss for the hosts. 

"He (O’Rourke) hasn't had sort of hamstring injury in the past. Disappointing for Will and disappointing for us because I thought he bowled fantastically well and for a guy that's so young in his Test career it looks like the Australians were certainly respecting him in the way that they're playing him. I thought his spell before he got injured was absolutely outstanding,” Stead said. 

Stead also rued that New Zealand misread the pitch and conditions at the Basin Reserve, where they played four pacers, and left out Mitchell Santner on a raging turner. 

"Yes, it is. Yeah, definitely," Stead said. "If we knew it was going to spin, not so much the spin but more the bounce, then Santner would have played. So yeah, we got that wrong. Put our hand up around that as well. It's not what we expected, not what we've seen from the Basin Reserve in the past either."