Tom Latham Suffers Finger Injury Ahead Of World Cup

With less than a fortnight remaining before the World Cup gets underway, New Zealand have suffered a huge injury scare. Their wicketkeeper-batsman and one of the batting mainstays Tom Latham has suffered a fracture in his finger. The left-handed batsman injured his left middle finger during the final match of the recently three-match warm-up series against Australia.

New Zealand have given him the go ahead to travel with the World Cup squad as scans show injury is healing. However, there’s no certainty over his availability in the opening stages of the World Cup that starts on May 30 with hosts England taking on South Africa in the tournament-opener. New Zealand, on the other hand, will open their campaign against Sri Lanka on June 1.

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New Zealand Cricket selector Gavin Larsen said the decision on Latham’s participation in the warm-up games will be taken close to the fixtures. Before the main event, New Zealand will play two warmup games against West Indies (May 25) and India (May 28). With Latham likely to miss the games, Tom Blundell looks set to don the wicketkeeping gloves.

“Whether he takes his place in those warmup games we’ll take a day by day approach on that, which will be down to the medical guys and Gary [Stead] and support staff when they’re over there,” he told Trackside Radio.

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Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket have also kept Tim Seifert and BJ Watling on standby as backup wicketkeepers.

“They’re both ready; Tim has come off the back of his finger injury, that’s OK, and BJ has been going well. We’ve got the different skill sets covered,” Larsen said.

New Zealand’s World Cup squad:

Kane Williamson (capt), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor