The New Zealand cricket side's tour to the West Indies has lurched from one injury drama to the next and matters were compounded today with news fast bowler Mark Gillespie has been ruled out of the test series after failing to recover from an ankle injury.
The Black Caps havealready lost captain Ross Taylor (shoulder), possibly for the rest of the tour. Roneel Hira (dislocated finger) and Jacob Oram (knee) have also been sidelined. Now they will be without one of their main strike bowlers for the test series, starting in the last week of July.
Gillespie played impressively on his return to the New Zealand side for last summer's South African tour and his pace and wicket-taking ability would have been invaluable in the Caribbean.
"Mark unfortunately has had to withdraw from the upcoming test series against the West Indies having not responded to treatment in time to be fully fit,'' national selection manager Kim Littlejohn said.
"As a precautionary measure, Mark feels that it would be the right decision to stay in Wellington to continue working on his rehabilitation.''
A decision on who will replace Gillespie in the test squad is yet to be made. Trent Boult has already joined the squad for the upcoming one-dayers which start on Friday morning.
New Zealand were well beaten in the two Twenty20 internationals in Florida on Sunday and Monday.
