In a surprising move, New Zealand have dropped star spinner Ajaz Patel for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh. The left-arm entered record books when he took 10 wickets in an innings of the Test match at the Wankhede stadium.
Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell are the two spinners in the squad. Speaking of his exclusion, New Zealand head coach Gary Stead admitted that Ajaz is unfortunate to miss out from making it to the squad.
“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,” stated Stead in a statement.
“We feel having both Rachin and Daryl in the squad gives us a nice balance and the ability to pick a side best suited to the conditions we expect,” he added.
New Zealand’s 13-man squad for Bangladesh Tests: Tom Latham (C), Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell (wk), Rachin Ravindra, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Devon Conway