Wellington Firebirds pace-bowler Ben Sears will join the BLACKCAPS as travelling reserve for the ICC T20 World Cup in India.
Sears will replace Kyle Jamieson who was called into the main squad last week following the withdrawal of Adam Milne with a hamstring injury.
The 27-year-old will link up with the T20 World Cup squad in Mumbai on Sunday ahead of the side’s warm-up match against the USA on Thursday February 5 (2.30am Feb 6 NZT).
BLACKCAPS coach Rob Walter said Sears had made an encouraging comeback from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the start of the home summer.
“Ben’s worked hard to get himself back on the park and it’s been great to see him back playing and performing well,” he said.
“He’s had a full Super Smash campaign with the Firebirds where he was the competition’s joint second-top wicket-taker from the round-robin stage with 15 wickets from his nine games.
“It will be great to have Ben with us here in India and ready to make an impact at the World Cup should someone get injured.”
BLACKCAPS ICC T20 World Cup squad
Mitchell Santner (c) - Northern Brave
Finn Allen - Auckland Aces
Michael Bracewell - Wellington Firebirds
Mark Chapman - Auckland Aces
Devon Conway - Wellington Firebirds
Jacob Duffy - Volts
Lockie Ferguson - Auckland Aces
Matt Henry - Canterbury Kings
Kyle Jamieson - Canterbury Kings
Daryl Mitchell - Canterbury Kings
James Neesham - Auckland Aces
Glenn Phillips - Volts
Rachin Ravindra - Wellington Firebirds
Tim Seifert - Northern Brave
Ish Sodhi - Canterbury Kings
*Ben Sears - Wellington Firebirds - travelling reserve
The BLACKCAPS have been assigned to Group D alongside Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa and the UAE, with their opening match taking place on February 8 in Chennai against Afghanistan.
Matches will be broadcast live in New Zealand on Sky Sport, with live scoring available at nzc.nz and the NZC App.
BLACKCAPS ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Schedule
Warm-up - v USA - Friday 6 February, 2.30am NZT (Navi Mumbai)
1st T20I - v Afghanistan - Sunday 8 February, 6.30pm NZT (Chennai)
2nd T20I - v UAE - Tuesday 10 February, 10.30pm NZT (Chennai)
3rd T20I - v South Africa - Sunday 15 February, 2.30am NZT (Ahmedabad)
4th T20I - v Canada - Tuesday 17 February, 6.30pm NZT (Chennai)
