KEY POINTS:
WORCESTER - A sprained ankle for Tim Southee has ruled him out of New Zealand's one-day warmup match and placed him in doubt for Saturday's (NZT) Twenty20 cricket international against England.
As his teammates travelled to Worcester today, the teenage paceman carried on to London to visit a
specialist but scans revealed no bone damage.
He suffered the injury to his right ankle during a fielding drill at Trent Bridge yesterday but carried on bowling, and the injury worsened later that evening.
It gives seamer Michael Mason a chance to impress against Worcestershire later tonight (NZT) as Southee recovers, with a team spokesman rating him "doubtful" for the Twenty20 match in Manchester.
New Zealand will play two spinners at Worcester, with Jeetan Patel included alongside captain Daniel Vettori.
Paceman Kyle Mills, Gareth Hopkins and James Marshall were the others to miss out.
Peter Fulton seemingly has the frontrunning for the No 3 batting spot after he was named in the third test side, then dropped, when Brendon McCullum played as a batsman due to a back injury which saw him relinquish the gloves.
McCullum trained with the gloves today and is expected to keep wicket and open the batting throughout the series, fitness permitting.
Allrounder Scott Styris and paceman Mark Gillespie will both get their first starts of the tour after joining the squad to replace Aaron Redmond, Iain O'Brien and Chris Martin.
Styris, now retired from test cricket, said it was difficult viewing from the Trent Bridge pavilion as his teammates folded by an innings and nine runs in the third test on Sunday.
He said the team were well aware of some of the stinging criticism of their performance from back home.
"There's a very determined feel in the team, everyone's getting on well and we've trained really hard in the past two days," Styris said.
"We realise there's plenty of work to do but we acknowledge we're a better one-day side than a test side. Last time we were here (in 2004) we lost the test series then went through the one-dayers unbeaten (against England and West Indies)."
New Zealand beat England 3-1 in the one-day series at home in February and are confident of repeating the dose here, despite both sides carrying similar personnel from the tests.
Both sides have key injury absentees, Andrew Flintoff for England and Jesse Ryder for New Zealand as he recovers from hand surgery.
Styris said England one-day captain Paul Collingwood and fellow batsman Ian Bell would be their key targets after averaging 10.66 and 15 respectively in the tests.
"They're key players in the one-day set-up and they look like they're struggling, so it's up to us to put them under even more pressure."
Worcester's picturesque New Road ground, former home of New Zealand opener Glenn Turner, was in pristine order for the tourists' arrival today after it was ravaged by floods a year ago.
On June 27 last year, the nearby Severn River burst its banks and the water level on the oval reached a staggering 4.76 metres.
Then, three weeks later when the ground was ready for play, floods hit again and the level reached 5.30m, deluging the pavilion and forcing the county to play their home matches elsewhere for the rest of the season.
New Zealand team to play Worcestershire
Daniel Vettori (captain), Brendon McCullum, Jamie How, Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Daniel Flynn, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason.
- NZPA
