New Zealand face ‘important series’ without key personnel

Two days ago, New Zealand celebrated victory in the second Test against Pakistan in Hamilton, a win that meant a 2-0 triumph in the series. At least, they celebrated inasmuch as they could: the next day eight of their Test XI were flying to Australia to defend the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Australia’s players thought they had a quick format switch after the Adelaide Test, but New Zealand are two days and one international flight worse off.

New Zealand also arrive with no Ross Taylor, who is recovering from eye surgery. They have no Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, or Corey Anderson, who are all out injured. Surprisingly, they have no Ish Sodhi, the legspinner who only once has faced Australia in an ODI earlier this year, and was Man of the Match, yet has been left out now. And of course, there is no Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, or Kyle Mills, all retired since the World Cup.

“We are missing some key players,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said in Sydney on Thursday. “We’ve lost over 1000 one-day international games since the World Cup. To replace those is a challenge. But we’ve also got some exciting players that you guys won’t know a lot about. Hopefully you will in a week or 10 days. That’s important for us to give them this sort of exposure, and find out which ones we want to keep backing and supporting.”

Among the new faces are legspinner Todd Astle, preferred in this series to Sodhi, and yet to make his …

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