The New Zealand cricketing summer has barely started but the perennial problem of bowler attrition is already rife, despite the team's seven-month hiatus from internationals.
The first test of the season starts against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Tuesday with three of the team's potential test bowlers - Tim Southee, HamishBennett and Kyle Mills - injured. Local batsmen won't be shy to pad up with the prospect of facing a weakened New Zealand attack on what could be a strip of tarmac. Evidence suggests runs will abound with the pitch on the same block that produced 657 runs in the third one-day international - which Zimbabwe won with a ball to spare last week.
New Zealand go in favourites for Ross Taylor's first test as captain but Zimbabwe's recent form suggests they will compete. In August, they beat Bangladesh by 130 runs in Harare after an almost six-year absence from the international fold. Last month they lost to Pakistan by seven wickets in Bulawayo but the teams produced a combined total of 878 runs in the first innings.
Eliciting a response out of a wicket that will have spent days under the African sun shapes as back-bending work for bowlers.
For New Zealand coach and selector John Wright, this is his trickiest selection call yet after 10 months in the job. Fortunately he will have the spin and all-round experience of Daniel Vettori to call on and possibly Jeetan Patel. Among the pace bowlers, the onus goes on Chris Martin. He is 37 in December but needs to inspire in the absence of New Zealand's main strike weapon Southee. One motivation to run in lies with Martin's test wicket tally. He sits on 199 from 61 tests - one more wicket would take him into a New Zealand club inhabited only by Sir Richard Hadlee (431), Vettori (345) and Chris Cairns (218). Without Bennett and the back-in-test-favour Mills, New Zealand's attack looks limited. At 31, left-armer Andy McKay has one test against India last year to his name where he finished with figures of one for 120.
Central Districts all-rounder Doug Bracewell is a prospect to debut.
He was rested from the final one-dayer so didn't suffer the mental baggage of being part of an attack shellacked for 329 runs. Graeme Aldridge has also been kept on tour as a just-in-case option but at 33 would seem only an interim solution.
A wider personnel problem could exist if the injuries continue into the summer.
New Zealand face stern opposition in Australia (two tests), Zimbabwe (one test) and South Africa (three tests) before embarking on the first test tour of the West Indies in 10 years.
Contracted player Trent Boult is not with the team, raising questions about coach John Wright's short-term faith in him; Neil Wagner has to wait until the New Year before he can be considered eligible; and Brent Arnel appears to have slipped out of favour. At 32 his international future appears limited.
Others, like Central Districts' Adam Milne (19) and Ben Wheeler (20), do not possess enough first class experience to be viable prospects against the might of Australia and South Africa with just 13 Plunket Shield matches between them.
