Cricket: Anderson pins hopes on back surgery

Corey Anderson. Photo / Duncan Brown

New Zealand's injury-plagued allrounder Corey Anderson is to undergo surgery on his troublesome back.

The powerful lefthander had to cut short his T20 stint with Somerset at the end of July when his back began playing up again.

He's expected to go under the knife in the near future in the hope he will be ready to play some part during the home international summer.

In his final innings before returning to New Zealand, Anderson clubbed 41 not out off just 17 balls against Sussex to help set up a win. A few days earlier he made 81 off 45 balls, with seven sixes against Surrey.

Anderson, 26, had his tour of England in 2015 cut short, with a double stress fracture during the test at Lord's, and was then sidelined for months after the world T20 in India last year. He has often spoken of his desire to retain two strings to his cricket bow and is reluctant to give up the bowling, but with every bad turn it seems to be getting closer on the horizon.

"It's one of those things ... you have a decent chunk out [with injury] and you don't really want to sit out again," Anderson said last year. "It's part of the game, you have injuries. Doing that gives you time to reflect on things and see where you can get better."

Anderson has played 13 tests, 49 ODIs and 29 T20s, since his international debut in December 2012, a ridiculously small amount given his talent, and amply illustrates his injury issues.

Since his debut in each form, New Zealand have played 37 tests, 90 ODIs and 38 T20s.

The recent part of Anderson's international career has involved a battle with Jimmy Neesham to be premier allrounder, with Anderson, when fit, generally preferred in the shorter forms, Neesham in test cricket.

Anderson's 36-ball century off the West Indies attack at Queenstown on New Year's Day 2014 remains the second fastest in ODI cricket, second only to AB de Villiers' 31-ball plunder of the same team in Johannesburg in 2015. For many fans that remains the abiding memory of Anderson the batsman.

A busy international season awaits New Zealand. A fit and firing Anderson would be an asset.