Black Caps v England: Player of the Year Jacob Duffy missing, one new face for test tour to England and Ireland
The Black Caps have named a bumper 19-strong squad for test tours of England and Ireland next month, albeit without New Zealand’s reigning player of the year.
New Zealand will be without Sir Richard Hadlee medallist Jacob Duffy for both series, as he prepares for the birth of his first child.
Duffy, 31, was named as the Black Caps’ best player across all formats earlier this year, after taking 81 wickets across tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals in 2025.
Those 81 wickets saw Duffy break the record for the most in a calendar year by a New Zealander, beating Hadlee’s previous record.
His absence is covered in the fast bowling ranks, by the returning trio of Kyle Jamieson, Will O’Rourke and Ben Sears.
Jamieson and O’Rourke missed the entirety of New Zealand’s test summer against the West Indies, as they recovered from their respective back injuries.
However, both have made their white-ball returns.
The same can be said for Sears, who hasn’t played a test since winning his only cap against Australia at the start of 2024, before experiencing numerous injury setbacks. Sears will be available for the Ireland test, and will be a travelling reserve in England.
The trio complement Matt Henry, Zak Foulkes and Nathan Smith as seam-bowling options, while Michael Rae is also only available to face Ireland.
With Mitchell Santner unavailable after picking up a shoulder injury in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Central Districts allrounder Dean Foxcroft has been selected for the test squad for the first time.
The 28-year-old has already debuted in white-ball cricket, playing four One-Day Internationals and seven Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), and will presumably vie with Glenn Phillips for the allrounder spot in the Black Caps XI.
Michael Bracewell has previously deputised for Santner and Phillips, but has taken a step back from red ball cricket to focus on the white-ball game and spending time with his young family.
New Zealand Cricket has confirmed to the Herald that despite his unavailability, Bracewell is not retired from the format.
Northern Districts seamer Kristian Clarke is the only other uncapped player in the squad, but will be with the Black Caps for the one-off test against Ireland only.
Like Foxcroft, Clarke has also played white ball cricket for New Zealand, and came close to a test debut against the West Indies last year, but lost that selection race to Ajaz Patel.
In the batting ranks, a full-strength line-up has been named – with captain Tom Latham joined by Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell.
While not unexpected, Williamson’s inclusion comes after saying his international future would be on a “series by series” basis, as he sits 539 runs shy of becoming the first New Zealander to pass 10,000 runs in test cricket.
Henry Nicholls appears to have overtaken Will Young as the reserve batter, with the latter only selected for the Ireland series.
Despite a patchy run of form over the last two years, Tom Blundell has been selected as the sole wicketkeeper for the four tests.
Given the IPL finals from May 25 to 31, the quintet of Henry, Foulkes, Jamieson, Ravindra and Phillips will join the squads once their respective tournaments end, before the Ireland test begins on May 27.
Black Caps squad for England and Ireland: Tom Latham (c), Tom Blundell, Kristian Clarke*, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae*, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson, Will Young*
*Ireland test only
Schedule
Test v Ireland – May 27-30 – Stormont, Belfast
First test v England – June 4-8 – Lord’s, London
Second test v England – June 17-21 – The Kia Oval, London
Third test v England – June 25-29 – Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.