Injured Lockie Ferguson ruled out of the Test series against Australia

New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson has been ruled out of the remainder of the three-match Test series against Australia. The right-hander endured a horror debut during the first Test at the Optus Stadium where he bowled 11 overs and was denied his maiden wicket when Tom Latham dropped Steven Smith in the slips.

The matters compounded to disastrous effects-both for Ferguson as well as for New Zealand- when the right-arm fast bowler hobbled off the ground courtesy a calf-injury, leaving the tourists with a two-match pace-attack in Tim Southee and Neil Wagner. In Ferguson’s absence, Southee and Wagner toiled away manfully but it was pretty evident that the Kiwis were clearly a fast bowler short in the heat sapping conditions of Perth.

The caravan will now move to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Boxing Day Test and New Zealand are hopeful that their premier fast bowler Trent Boult, who missed the first Test due to injury will be fully fit for the historic affair on December 26th.

“Trent’s going really well, he was probably three or four days short of being ready for the first test match. That was a risk that we weren’t prepared to take given the length of the season and what was left to come.” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said as quoted by CricketNext.

New Zealand’s batting in the first Test was appalling

New Zealand have won just one Test in Australia since 1985-86 and if they continue to bat in the manner that they did in the first Test, they’ll have to wait for some more time to register another victory. The tourists were bowled out for 166 and 171 across the two innings and opener Jeet Raval’s form at the top is one thing that the team-management will be looking at closely.

“These are some hard lessons for him and great experiences as well. In terms of looking forward, just having finished this game, it’s important we reflect on it and any selections will be based upon the surfaces and the squad that we have at the time.”

The No.2 ranked side in the world lost the first Test by 296 runs and it will be interesting to see how they react to the drubbing when they take on Australia on Boxing Day.

Watch: Junior Dala’s perfect yorker in MSL 2019