CHRISTCHURCH: Can­ter­bury fast bowler Matt Henry was called up to the New Zealand squad for the second Test against Pakistan, starting on Sunday at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, to replace the injured Neil Wagner, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has said.

Wagner is expected to be sidelined for around six weeks after sustaining fractures in the toes of his right foot during the first Test at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, which the hosts won by 101 runs.

Henry, who has 30 Test wickets, is being rewarded for his recent form which saw him register figures of 6-53 for New Zealand ‘A’ against Pakistan Shaheens last month. The 29-year-old has also taken seven wickets from four Ford Trophy matches this season for Canterbury.

“Matt has been in good form with the ball,” New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said on Friday. “We’re still a couple of days out from the Test, so need to take a look at the surface while also assessing our options for best possible team make-up.”

Henry, 29, is thrilled at the possibility of playing on his home turf which always offers a bit to the pace bowlers, and this week shapes as no different.

Babar Azam almost certain to sit out again

“Obviously it’s a shame with what’s happened with Waggy’s [Wagner] foot but I’m very excited to be here at home back in the squad,” said Henry, who is probably vying with all-rounders Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner for a spot in the XI, with one of those three players likely to miss selection.

“The guys have been going so well too so to come and join the team while they’re doing so well is great. [Hagley Oval] is a great venue … it’s a great wicket and I’m looking forward to it, if the opportunity arises to be out there,” Henry added.

While Henry pointed out Wagner — the third-ranked Test bowler in the world — would be missed by New Zealand, Pakistan all-rounder Faheem Ashraf clearly wasn’t upset about his absence, especially on a Hagley Oval pitch that looked ‘greener, bouncier and quicker’ than what the tourists encountered in their heartbreaking defeat at Bay Oval.

“Wagner is a good Test bowler. He’s a seasoned, experienced bowler who creates difficulty for every team he plays against,” Faheem said. “If Wagner is not in the squad, you must be happy and it is a big relief for Pakistan.”

Faheem further said Pakistan going into the final Test with a ‘new mindset’ and eliminating the small errors that cost them in Mount Maunganui as they try to square the series and make a move up the World Test Championship (WTC) table.

But the visitors are almost certain to take the field for the second Test running without their regular skipper Babar Azam, who is still recuperating from a fractured finger sustained during a training session in Queenstown early on the tour and also missed out the three-match Twenty20 International series.

The Black Caps must win to keep their charge going for the final at Lord’s later in the year. That’s not the only milestone on the periphery of this Test of the home summer, either.

A win would be their six in succession — a New Zealand record — and it would also be the first time they have completed a perfect home season in a multiple-tour summer, having beaten the West Indies 2-0 before the Pakistan series.

They would also officially move to No 1 in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings for the first time, with either a win or a draw against Pakistan.

Not that any of that talk has been a focus for Stead. “Every Test match we go into, it’s just about winning that and doing everything we can to win that Test match and I don’t really want us to change that mentality at the moment.

“If we start getting too far ahead of ourselves and start thinking of things that might happen in the future, you can get lost in what you’re doing right now.

“For us it will just be about playing each ball as it comes.”

Teams (from):

NEW ZEALAND: Kane Williamson (captain), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, B.J. Watling, Will Young.

PAKISTAN: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Yasir Shah, Naseem Shah, Zafar Gohar.

Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand) and Chris Brown (Nw Zealand).

TV umpire: Wayne Knights (New Zealand).

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand).

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2021