No Williamson again as Latham to lead NZ against Bangladesh

Tom Latham has been made captain of the New Zealand Test team for their upcoming two-match series against Bangladesh, starting from January 1, informed the New Zealand Cricket Board.

Regular skipper and the number four batsman in the ICC Test batsmen rankings, Kane Williamson, is missing out on another series against Bangladesh; this time for an injury on his left elbow which also ruled him out from the Mumbai Test against India earlier this year.

Bangladesh toured New Zealand earlier this year, and the Blackcaps also travelled to Bangladesh in the middle of the year. But on both occasions, Williamson was unavailable due to different reasons.

In Williamson’s absence, Latham led New Zealand in Mumbai and against Bangladesh in the one-day international series at home and the Twenty20 international series in Bangladesh.

New Zealand opted for a squad with the focus on seam bowling in their first home series of 2022, with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Neil Wagner, Kyle Jamieson, and Matt Henry all included.

Surprisingly, there was no room for a specialist spinner in the 13-man squad, meaning left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel misses out despite taking all 10 wickets in an innings in India and 14 in total in the Test.

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead is confident that he has all bases covered for both Bay Oval and Hagley Oval.

“It’s great to be back home, and at venues, we know well, and where we’ve had success in recent times,” said Stead.

“It’s obviously disappointing not to have Kane available for this series, but as we noted in India, he is undergoing a sustained period of rest followed by rehabilitation, strengthening, and gradual batting loading,” he added.

“We have every confidence in Tom leading the side - he’s done an excellent job in the past when called upon. You do feel for Ajaz after his record-breaking display in India. However, we’ve always applied a horses-for-courses selection policy and believe the players selected best fit the way we want to take on Bangladesh here at home”, said the New Zealand coach.