<\/p>\n
\nCanterbury seamer Michael Rae has joined the Black Caps test squad in Wellington.
\nPhoto: Kerry Marshall \/ www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n
Uncapped fast bowler Michael Rae has been added to the Black Caps squad for the second test against the West Indies.<\/p>\n
The towering 30-year-old Cantabrian joins the New Zealand side as it confronts a stern test of its bowling depth.<\/p>\n
In the unfolding injury crisis, Matt Henry and Nathan Smith were sidelined during the opening test in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Both Henry and Smith remain doubtful for the second test in Wellington on Wednesday, particularly due to the short turnaround between matches.<\/p>\n
While Rae is unknown to most Black Caps’ followers, he’s been a regular on the domestic scene for Canterbury.<\/p>\n
He’s chalked up 69 first-class matches including three five-wicket hauls. He’s also played a handful of times for English county Warwickshire.<\/p>\n
Rae flew to Wellington today to join the squad for their preparations.<\/p>\n
Rae and Blair Tickner, who was the reserve fast bowler in Christchurch, could be in contention for the test XI.<\/p>\n
And with Black Caps wicketkeeper Tom Blundell ruled out of the upcoming test with a hamstring tear, Canterbury’s Mitch Hay joins the squad.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old keeper and right hand batsmen is poised to make his test debut in Wellington.<\/p>\n
Black Caps coach Rob Walter will also be keeping a close watch on pacers Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes.<\/p>\n
They carried an extremely heavy workload as New Zealand’s attacked was depleted to just two frontline seamers at Hagley Oval.<\/p>\n
The West Indies head to Wellington with plenty of confidence after their defiant draw in Christchurch in the opening test.<\/p>\n
The second test starts on Wednesday at the Basin Reserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury seamer Michael Rae has joined the Black Caps test squad in Wellington. Photo: Kerry Marshall \/ www.photosport.nz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-171341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}