Blow for New Zealand! William O'Rourke ruled out of the last test against Zimbabwe

William O’Rourke will be missing the second test against Zimbabwe due to a back injury.

The New Zealand Cricket Team have suffered a massive blow ahead of the second test against the Zimbabwe Cricket Team as fast bowler William O’Rourke has been ruled out of the next game of the series due to a back injury, adding to the injury woes of the Black Caps. 

A few days ago, Nathan Smith was ruled out of the series with an abdominal strain, and now William O’Rourke joins the injury list. The fast bowler experienced back stiffness on the third day of the first test, and immediately after that, left-arm fast bowler Ben Lister was also called in as cover. 

The absence of William O’Rourke comes as a blow because he had a decent outing with the ball in the first game. After going wicketless in the first innings, he returned with the figures of 3/28 from 10 overs before experiencing back stiffness.

We are hopeful it’s nothing too serious – New Zealand bowling coach Jacob Oram

While talking about William O’Rourke’s injury, New Zealand bowling coach Jacob Oram said that there’s nothing serious with the pacer’s back, but they don’t want to take any risk as he will be important going forward. He added: 

“We are hopeful it’s nothing too serious,” New Zealand bowling coach Jacob Oram said. “When he’s so important to our side for the next six to eight months, but also next year with all the Test cricket, we’ve got some big tours, we need to make sure we look after the big guy and make sure that he’s okay. So we have our fingers crossed for him and hopefully he’ll be back on the park soon.” 

With William O’Rourke getting ruled out of the second test, it is expected that one of Jacob Duffy or Matthew Fisher will make their test debut in the second game against Zimbabwe. The Black Caps are also mulling over the fitness of their skipper, Tom Latham. 

Latham missed the first match due to a shoulder injury, with Mitchell Santner standing in as skipper. There’s still no clarity is the regular captain will play the next match or not. The second game gets underway from 7th August.

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