Cricket: Martin joins squad, backed by Vettori

Chris Martin has India in his sights. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Chris Martin will be bowling for his international future in the nets at Seddon Park.

The 34-year-old paceman was included in New Zealand's 13 for the first test against India starting in Hamilton on Wednesday, on the say-so of captain Daniel Vettori, who was included, along with coach Andy Moles, in the selection meeting.

Earlier in the season, Vettori had embarrassed the panel led by Glenn Turner and also including Dion Nash, John Wright and most recently Mark Greatbatch, by saying he felt Martin was the best seamer in the country, even though he had been excluded from his side to face the West Indies.

On that occasion, Mark Gillespie was preferred and responded by taking 0-102 in Dunedin and was dropped for the second test.

The word is that at least two of the selectors - Turner and Nash - are still convinced Martin has lost his zip and do not believe he should be included at Hamilton.

They have allowed him a place in the squad and want Vettori to assess his performance in the nets before he and Moles make a final decision on the playing 11. Martin last played for New Zealand in Australia, where he took six relatively expensive wickets in the two tests. However, his dropping

for the West Indies series seemed hasty, but the belief is he is not just a little slower than at his peak but a lot slower. Holding him back also was a growing frustration that, with Iain O'Brien establishing himself in the 11 with a set of consistent displays, when New Zealand were eight down, they were effectively all out.

Neither O'Brien nor Martin are great fielders and the selectors were reluctant to carry two players with, as the current vernacular goes, single skill-sets. The right-armer did not help his case in Queenstown, where Auckland are playing Otago in the

State Championship. On a helpful wicket, Martin's 16 overs created 0-60. In contrast, former New Zealand bowler Daryl Tuffey took 4-32 from 21.5 overs.

New Zealand squad: Daniel Vettori (c), Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel, Iain O'Brien, Brent Arnel, Chris Martin.

India (from): MS Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay, Munaf Patel, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik.