Mitchell McClenaghan ruled out of India tour

The New Zealand team received their second blow in two days as after Adam Milne pacer Mitchell McClenaghan has also been ruled out of the tour of India. It was just yesterday that the Black Caps national selector Gavin Larsen announced that Milne would no longer be a part of the limited-overs squad for the tour and today it is learnt that McClenaghan who suffered a pelvis injury wouldn’t make it either.

The reports of the injury were confirmed by a New Zealand Cricket spokesperson to stuff.co.nzon. This now puts the team management under serious stress to dish out a playing XI good enough to challenge the Indians at their home, where their potential is at its highest without two of their most prominent bowlers.

McClenaghan had a great season with his Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians and his experience of having played a couple of IPL seasons with the knowledge of the nature of the wickets would have certainly been an asset for the visitors. it is also worth a mention that the left-arm pacer hasn’t played an ODI for New Zealand since he suffered an eye injury in the game against Pakistan in January this year.

But the Kiwis have always been rich in the fast bowling department and despite the setbacks have a lot of names to turn to. All-rounder Corey Anderson is certainly one of those and Larsen said, “We will monitor Corey like we’ll watch everyone and assess where he is at after those games,”

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It is also possible that they opt to give Doug Bracewell who is a part of the Test team a longer rope and keep him around for the ODIs since by that time he would have a really good feel of the wickets. “It is the bowling obviously we are very keen to see Corey keep progressing in, to be getting back to being selectable as a genuine all-rounder. We are trying to get that on track as quick as possible.” Larsen said.

New Zealand will play a 5-match ODI series against India starting October 16 following the 3-match Test series.