Corey Anderson to miss out on tour of Australia due to injury

All-rounder Corey Anderson injured his back on the tour to England in May

New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson was ruled out from the upcoming three-Test tour of Australia on Monday. Anderson has been suffering from a back injury since the tour of England in May.

Gavin Larsen, the New Zealand selector, said Anderson has been recovering slower than expected from the double stress fracture in his spine. According to a report on Stuff, Mitchell Santner is seen as the most likely replacement for Anderson in the Australia Test series that is scheduled to start on November 5 in Brisbane.

“We wanted an allrounder and we believe the next best all-rounder in the country is Mitchell Santner. In an ideal scenario, we would have had an apples with apples replacement, but that wasn't the case,” Larsen said.

Larsen believed that Santner's left-arm spin bowling will bring variation into the New Zealand bowling attack on a bouncy Brisbane track. However, Santner's inexperience will be put to test, in case he gets the nod to the Test squad.

The selectors will be hoping that another all-rounder Jimmy Neesham will prove his fitness before the final Test squads can be announced. Neesham has been struggling to prove his fitness after a back injury he picked up earlier this year.

“He's progressing nicely. I was up in Hamilton last week [at the pre-tour camp] and I thought Jimmy ran in really well and bowled with rhythm. Everything I saw last week and everything I'm hearing from the high-performance guys and Mike [Hesson] is that he's nicely on track. We're hopeful he'll be 100 per cent once we hit Australia,” Larsen said.

Most of the New Zealand national team players are set to play the Plunket Shield, scheduled to start this Thursday. Northern Districts will be bolstered by the presence of players such as Kane Williamson, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Mitchell Santner. Brendon McCullum will miss out, on the occasion of testifying for the Chris Cairns trial in London.

Neesham is set to feature for Otago in the Plunket Shield. Larsen will be keeping an eye out for how the all-rounder gets along as Neesham's fitness will cause fewer selection problems as he is similar to Anderson. In case, Neesham suffers a further setback in the first-class tournament the selectors might have to shorten either the batting lineup or the bowling lineup as they explore different team selection possibilities.

Neesham has a decent Test record, scoring 606 runs at an average of 43.28 which also includes two centuries.

Meanwhile, Anderson will continue his recovery at the NZC high-performance centre in Christchurch. No return date has been set yet.

“He's an absolutely pivotal member of our squad so we need to do everything we can to get him back on the park. But more importantly we can't rush it. We've got to have him 100 percent before he gets back into it," Larsen said.