Jimmy Neesham ruled out of first Test against India

The visitors New Zealand faced a major setback early on their tour. All-rounder Jimmy Neesham has been officially ruled out of consideration for the first Test that begins on 22 September at Kanpur. Neesham sustained a rib injury that will keep him out of action in the first of the 3-match Test series.

Neesham, who was making his comeback to the Test team, will have to wait a little longer to get in the middle of action. Neesham had last played a Test match for New Zealand in November 2015. He had to bow out of the New Zealand tour to Australia midway after sustaining a back injury. He had his injury concerns combined with an inconsistent form that kept him out of the national team.

Speaking about the injury, coach Mike Hesson said, “Jimmy was struck in the nets and has been in discomfort the last few days, it will take a few days for the bruising to go away, but it’s very much a short-term injury. Jimmy won’t be available for selection in Kanpur, but we expect him to be back to full fitness ahead of the second Test.”

However, having made it to the tour of India, Neesham was confident of putting up a good show. “I’m basically looking to go back to how I played when I first came into international cricket,” Neesham had said after his arrival in New Delhi a week ago.

He had also cited that it was his carefree attitude that saw him being in and out of the team. He went on to cite that the pressure of sitting out of the team crept in and he put in a lot of measures to rectify his weaknesses. “I think I was a bit more carefree, and a bit more, I suppose, laissez-faire, especially with batting. Once you start feeling the pressure of international cricket and wanting results and wanting runs, it can curb your game a little bit which I think is one of the traps I fell into,” Neesham said.

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Neesham was optimistic of having a good return to Test cricket and had further added, “I’m just looking to go back to playing my natural game and it’s a bit of a cliche, but hopefully runs and wickets will flow from there.”

However, the news broke out on Monday night about his injury and Jimmy Neesham is out of contention from playing in the Kanpur Test.