T20 World Cup 2021: Gary Stead Seeks Clarification From ICC For Not Allowing To Add Adam Milne As Lockie Ferguson's Replacement Before Pakistan Game

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said that it was “really disappointing” that the ICC didn’t allow his side to add Adam Milne as a replacement for Lockie Ferguson ahead of the Pakistan match, which they then went on to lose by 5 wickets.

Ferguson was ruled of the tournament with a calf tear about an hour before the encounter with Babar Azam’s team. However, pacer Adam Milne, who was in the reserves, wasn’t allowed to be added to the main squad by the governing body.

Gary Stead asserted that New Zealand will “continue to seek clarification” about ICC’s reason for not allowing teams to add players on the same day.

“We tried pretty hard to get across the line with the ICC our replacement player, but it wasn’t to be. That was really disappointing for us because Adam Milne is someone waiting in the wings as a like-for-like replacement,” Gary Stead said.

“What we were told is they don’t give clearance on the same day, so we’ll question that reason and continue to seek clarification on that.”

We probably changed the team three times today on that decision: Gary Stead

Highlighting further on how quickly and confusingly things transpired in the Kiwi camp, the coach revealed that they had to change the team thrice as they thought Milne would be added directly to the squad once Ferguson was ruled out.

“You always plan to have the changes like this, the most unsettling thing for us is we probably changed the team three times today on that decision. Originally we thought we’d got the clearance for Adam to play, but then it’s been turned down. So we were questioning it with the ICC as much as an hour and a half out from the game and arriving there,” he said.

The 49-year-old wanted to play an extra pacer in the team but then had to opt for leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who, as it turned out, fared decently, returning with figures of 2/28.

“We weren’t going to play Ish Sodhi we felt that pitch was one that would suit the seamers a lot more and the up-and-down nature of the pitch and the work we’d done around scouting and what the data was telling us was that it pointed towards seam bowlers and pace bowlers being more effective. That’s the way we would have gone,” Gary Stead concluded.

New Zealand will next face India on Sunday in Dubai; it will be a crucial game for both sides as Virat Kohli’s men, too, are coming off a loss to Pakistan.

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