The Wellington Firebirds will unveil a new look bowling attack when they take-on Canterbury in round two of the Plunket Shield starting tomorrow.

Injuries and unavailability have forced head coach Glenn Pocknall to make no less than five changes to the side that beat Otago last week.

Frontline seamers Hamish Bennett and Ollie Newton miss out due to injury, while speedster Ben Sears is unavailable, so young seamers Adam Leonard and Michael Snedden come in to the twelve along with legspinner Peter Younghusband.

Eastern Suburbs allrounder Jamie Gibson replaces Jimmy Neesham who was selected in the BLACKCAPS T20 squad for the five-match series against England starting on Friday and Andrew Fletcher comes in for Rachin Ravindra who has also sustained an injury.

Pocknall said it was unfortunate to have a number of key players unavailable but highlighted the opportunity now available for his young players.

“It’s obviously always challenging when you have so many key players missing from the squad,” he said.

“But this is another chance to give our young players a crack at this level and we’re excited to see what they can do against what will be a strong Canterbury side.

“We had a great win last week so the camp is in good spirits and those young guys will feed off that going in to the match tomorrow.”

Top order batsman Devon Conway continued to prove his talent with a well-made 95 in last week’s eight wicket win.

Last year’s Men’s Domestic Player of the Year has scored 774 runs since the beginning of the 2018/19 Plunket Shield campaign – more than any other player – and brought up 6,000 first-class runs last week.

BLACKCAPS wicketkeeper Tom Blundell was also among the runs, while allrounder Malcolm Nofal made an impressive start to the season picking up best match bowling figures of 7-30.

“It was satisfying to see a so many guys start the season well with some strong performances”, said Pocknall.

“We’re pleased to have got the campaign off to a good start, but we’ve parked that win now and the team are focused on building and improving on that performance this week.”

Play gets underway at 10.30am at the Basin Reserve tomorrow – spectator entry is free.

Wellington Firebirds squad | Plunket Shield | Round Two

Michael Bracewell (Eastern Suburbs) (C)

Tom Blundell (Karori)

Fraser Colson (Eastern Suburbs)

Devon Conway (VUWCC)

Andrew Fletcher (Onslow)

Jamie Gibson (Eastern Suburbs)

Adam Leonard (VUWCC)

Iain McPeake (Hutt District)

Malcolm Nofal (VUWCC)

Michael Snedden (Karori)

Logan Van Beek (Taita)

Peter Younghusband (Karori)

Article added: Monday 28 October 2019