Hamstring injury rules Guptill out of Bangladesh T20Is

Hamstring injury rules Guptill out of Bangladesh T20Is

Martin Guptill, the New Zealand opening batsman, is set to miss the three-match Twenty20 International series against Bangladesh at home after suffering a hamstring injury during the third and final One-Day International on Saturday (December 31). Neil Broom has been named as the replacement.

The opener did his hamstring on the first ball of the third over when he went in for a quick single. He had to retire hurt after that and didn't come out again after the fall of Broom's wicket. Guptill is expected to be out of action for 2-4 weeks. New Zealand won the match by a comfortable margin of eight wickets with Kane Williamson and Broom guiding the team past the finishing line with a 179-run association.

Broom was in fine touch in the ODI series with the bat. After scoring 22 in the first game, he slammed his maiden ODI ton in the second - an unbeaten 109 - before ending the series with a 97.

"Martin's obviously a key player for us with the white ball, so to lose him is disappointing," Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, said. "We're confident with some rest, followed by a couple of domestic games, he'll be ready to play a big role against Australia at the end of January.

"We needed to replace an attacking opening batsman and with Neil's experience opening in the T20 format and his current form, he was a ready-made replacement. Martin also leads our fielding in white-ball cricket and so we're expecting Neil to be a big contributor in that area as well."

New Zealand have already decided to manage the workload of their pacers and rested Trent Boult for the final ODI. While he will be a part of the T20I squad, the selectors have decided to rest Tim Southee for the series.

Squad for T20Is: Kane Williamson (c), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Ben Wheeler, Neil Broom