WELLINGTON: Pace spearhead Trent Boult needed a small break to catch up with his family and get ready for the Test series against West Indies rather than play the three Twenty20 Internationals that start next Friday, according to former New Zealand quick Shane Bond.

Bond and Boult are currently in managed isolation in Christchurch after they returned to New Zealand last week from the IPL in the United Arab Emirates.

Boult and captain Kane Williamson were both left out of New Zealand’s Twenty20 squad to concentrate on the Tests that start on Dec 3.

“To fly out of here and go straight into games without seeing his family would have been a massive mistake,” Bond said on a conference call on Friday. “I think for his own sanity he needs to get home and spend a bit of time with his family before another busy summer.”

Bond added that after not having played long-form cricket since March, Boult was working on building back his bowling loads at the high performance centre outside Christchurch in his sanctioned training sessions while in mandatory isolation to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“Part of the thinking of being here together in quarantine is to get a bit more volume in terms of overs under his belt,” added Bond, who is helping with the training sessions. “So it gives him a bit of time to get some volume here and in the week or two before the Test series against the West Indies starts.”

Boult is a virtual automatic selection for New Zealand’s squad for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in India and it was important that coach Gary Stead and selector Gavin Larsen got a look at other players against West Indies, Bond added.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2020