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Bond called up for tour of Sri Lanka

Shane Bond is set to play his first international matches in nearly two years after being named to tour Sri Lanka

Brydon Coverdale
Brydon Coverdale
07-Jul-2009
Shane Bond will be back in action on New Zealand's tour of Sri Lanka  •  Getty Images

Shane Bond will be back in action on New Zealand's tour of Sri Lanka  •  Getty Images

Shane Bond is set to play his first international matches in nearly two years after being named in New Zealand's one-day squad to tour Sri Lanka in August and September. However, Bond's hopes of a Test recall will depend on whether he can prove himself in the longer formats having focused largely on limited-overs games since 2007.
Bond and his fellow former ICL player Daryl Tuffey were both included after severing their ties with the unsanctioned Twenty20 league. Tuffey was picked in the Test squad and Bond, 34, for the ODIs and Twenty20s, and the head of the selection panel, Glenn Turner, said New Zealand would take a cautious approach with the injury-prone Bond.
"He's expressed a desire to play in Tests and that would be great if that could happen," Turner told Cricinfo. "But he hasn't played in the longer form of the game for a while now. He didn't play in the State Championship for Canterbury this year so we're just tiptoeing around that for a while. Once he has got his workloads up we'll see, but if he's injured then he's no use in either format."
Bond will warm up for his international comeback by visiting India with New Zealand A in August. His most recent taste of first-class cricket came during a county stint with Hampshire just over a year ago.
Tuffey, 31, missed out on a central contract last month but will be straight into the mix for the two Tests in a squad that features only three frontline seamers, with no room for James Franklin and Tim Southee. He has not represented New Zealand since the 2007 World Cup and hasn't played a Test since 2004 but Turner was confident Tuffey was ready to step back in after taking 27 first-class wickets at 22 during the New Zealand domestic summer.
"Daryl did prove himself last season for Auckland," Turner said. "He was the second top wicket taker in the State Championship and he was able to stay on the park. He bowled very nicely during that period. There's only three frontline fast bowlers in the party and in the conditions over there we're only likely to play two of them. We don't know who the two will be. He does swing the ball. It's a bit of a wait and see for Daryl as well."
In a surprise selection move the Auckland wicketkeeper Reece Young, 29, was picked as cover for Brendon McCullum in the 15-man Test squad despite Gareth Hopkins being the spare gloveman in the contract list released a fortnight ago. Hopkins was chosen in the ODI squad while a fourth wicketkeeper, Peter McGlashan, was named for the Twenty20 portion of the trip.
"He toured last time with the 'A's," Turner said of Young. "We just like his glovework and I think it's healthy now that we have guys putting their hands up in different forms of the game. We have McGlashan with his innovative batting in Twenty20 and we like Gareth Hopkins as a batsman in the 50 overs. It's horses for courses."
Young was the only uncapped player in the Test group, which also included Craig Cumming, who has not played a Test since January 2008, as the spare batsman. Scott Styris and Iain O'Brien were among the omissions for the limited-overs section of the tour, which will feature several men who will join the squad after warming up in India with New Zealand A.
"Many of the squad will be coming off their winter break, so the opportunity to get game time in sub-continent conditions is ideal," Turner said. The New Zealand A side will be captained by Peter Fulton and several players will be desperate to impress having recently lost their New Zealand contracts, including Jamie How and Aaron Redmond.
Test squad Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Craig Cumming, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Grant Elliott, Daniel Vettori (capt), Reece Young, Daryl Tuffey, Jeetan Patel, Iain O'Brien, Chris Martin.
Limited-overs squad Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, Gareth Hopkins (ODIs only), Peter McGlashan (Twenty20s only), Ian Butler, Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel.
New Zealand A squad Peter Fulton (capt), Brent Arnel, Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Brendon Diamanti, Gareth Hopkins, Jamie How, Peter McGlashan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tarun Nethula, Aaron Redmond, Tim Southee, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.

Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo