Injury Crisis Deepens for Black Caps as Tickner and Ferguson Are Ruled Out of India ODIs

New Zealand's injury list has become a story in itself. On Monday, the day before the third one-day international against India in Hamilton, New Zealand Cricket confirmed that Blair Tickner and Lockie Ferguson have both been ruled out of the remainder of the series — and the Black Caps are now leaning on a 25-year-old who has made a habit of dismissing Virat Kohli to plug the gap.

Tickner's case is the crueller of the two. The fast bowler was struck by a ball while batting in the second ODI in Wellington on Saturday, and though he was cleared of concussion, he was replaced in the XI by fellow pacer Matt Fisher as a concussion substitute. That substitution carries a cost under ICC rules: a mandatory seven-day stand-down from the date of the match. So Tickner, fit but sidelined by the protocol, misses the third ODI on Tuesday and the fourth in Mount Maunganui on Friday.

Ferguson's absence is more straightforward and no less damaging. The right-arm quick has failed to recover from the low-grade tear in his right calf that he picked up during the Twenty20 leg of the tour, and he will miss the fourth and fifth ODIs at Mount Maunganui. For a side already chasing the series — India lead 2-0 and New Zealand are still looking for their first win of the five-match affair — losing two frontline quicks in one morning is a heavy blow.

The man stepping into the breach is Kristian Clarke. The 25-year-old was already in the squad for the later matches of the series and has now been brought into the group early as cover. Clarke carries a neat calling card: he has dismissed Kohli twice, a fact that will not have escaped the selectors as they weigh up how to unsettle an Indian batting line-up that has had things its own way so far.

It is the latest turn in a series that has been dogged by fitness problems for the hosts from the start. New Zealand have been shuffling their squad for weeks, with several players ruled out before the home summer even began, and the churn has not stopped since. Captain Mitchell Santner now leads a third-ODI squad that reads like a roll call of the fit and available: Bracewell, Duffy, Fisher, Jamieson, Kelly, Latham, Mitchell, Nicholls, Phillips, Seifert, Smith and Young alongside Clarke, with Finn Allen and Dean Foxcroft among those coming in for the fourth match.

The timing could hardly be worse. Hamilton on Tuesday is, in effect, a must-win game — lose it and the series is gone with two matches still to play, and the home crowd at Seddon Park will expect a response. The bowlers who remain know the task. Duffy and Jamieson will have to carry the new-ball workload, Fisher gets another chance after his emergency call-up in Wellington, and Clarke, if he plays, gets the kind of opportunity young fast bowlers dream about: a home crowd, a series on the line, and Kohli at the other end. New Zealand's medical room is full. Their hopes, for now, rest on whoever is still standing.