LEEDS (England), May 22: New Zealand wicket-keeper B.J. Watling was ruled out on Wednesday of the second and final Test against England at Headingley starting Friday.

Watling injured his knee during New Zealand’s 170-run first Test defeat at Lord’s last week.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who deputised behind the stumps at Lord’s, will keep at Headingley with Martin Guptill coming into the team to bat at No 6, a Black Caps statement issued on Wednesday said.

Meanwhile former captain Daniel Vettori, who only joined the squad Wednesday, could play at Headingley after fellow left-arm spinner Bruce Martin was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a calf injury suffered at Lord’s.

Vettori, named in New Zealand’s squad for their One-day Internationals against England and next month’s Champions Trophy, has been out of Test action for almost a year because of a hamstring injury.

Wednesday’s statement said Vettori will be “assessed after tomorrow’s [Thursday’s] training as to whether he can be considered for the match”.

With 360 victims to his name, Vettori is New Zealand’s second highest Test wicket-taker.

His last Test was a nine-wicket defeat by West Indies in Antigua in July 2012 and his only international action since then was at the World Twenty20 in October.

The only other bowling option open to New Zealand is seamer Doug Bracewell, who was left out of the first Test.

Meanwhile, England batsman Joe Root said that the hosts would look to carry on from where they left off against New Zealand at Lord’s.

England skittled out New Zealand for just 68 on Sunday.

“The guys played exceptionally well over the week,” Root said. “That last day was really good so we are taking a lot of confidence from that into this week.

“We want to win and we will definitely be going out there to do that. We want to prepare as best we can and hopefully we can get things right and start off well,” he added.

Last week’s match was Root’s first Test in England and he responded with knocks of 40 and 71, valuable innings in the context of a low-scoring clash.

Now he is looking to follow that up with more runs on his Yorkshire home ground, where pitches have generally aided batsmen so far this season.

“It is amazing. It is great to have the opportunity to be here and I have loved every minute of it so far,” Root, who only played the first of his five Tests to date in December, against India in Nagpur, said.

“The [Headingley] wicket varies from game to game. This year quite a lot of runs have been scored on it so it will be interesting to see how it goes this week,” the 22-year-old added.—AFP