Ferguson won’t be back for the last two ODIs, and Kristian Clarke is in for Tickner in Hamilton
Blair Tickner is serving a seven-day stand-down and Lockie Ferguson’s calf has not healed, so New Zealand have called Clarke up a game early with India 2-0 ahead.
Nov 9, 2026
New Zealand are down two more fast bowlers for the rest of their ODI series against India. Blair Tickner, who was hit by a ball while batting in Wellington, misses the game at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Tuesday. Lockie Ferguson was due to come in for the last two matches and is now out of both with a calf tear. Northern Districts seamer Kristian Clarke has been called up early to cover.
India lead the five-match series 2-0 after two rain-hit wins on DLS, so a win in Hamilton on 10 November would settle it with two games to spare.
Tickner is cleared but still stood down
Tickner was struck while New Zealand batted in the second ODI at Wellington Regional Stadium on 7 November. New Zealand Cricket say he has been cleared of concussion, but the ICC’s rules still require a seven-day stand-down from the date of the match, and Matt Fisher replaced him in the XI that day. Tickner is in neither the game-three nor the game-four squad, so the fifth ODI on 15 November is the earliest he could play again.
Ferguson had only been named for the last two games, both at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, on 13 and 15 November. He has not got over the low-grade tear in his right calf from the T20I series, and he will miss both.
Clarke moves up a game
Clarke was already in the squad for games four and five, so the call-up just brings him in a match sooner. The 25-year-old made his ODI debut against India in Vadodara on 11 January 2026 and has seven wickets from four ODIs, with a best of 3 for 54. In his second game, in Rajkot, he took the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer.
Matt Henry should be back for the fourth ODI. He was cleared of concussion after a collision with Devon Conway, and after being reassessed in Wellington he was told to aim for that game. Conway is out of the series with concussion. Rachin Ravindra (shoulder) and Mark Chapman (hamstring) were ruled out of the ODIs on 2 November, two days before the first one.
Five Test players leave after Hamilton
The bigger change comes after Tuesday. Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips and Nathan Smith head to Wellington on Wednesday to start preparing for the first Test, which begins at the Basin Reserve on 19 November. Mitchell is the top run-scorer in the series so far with 83. Henry and Kyle Jamieson will stay with the one-day group for the fourth ODI instead of joining the Test camp.
That leaves Mitchell Santner with 13 players for game four: Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Clarke, Jacob Duffy, Fisher, Dean Foxcroft, Mitch Hay, Henry, Jamieson, Nick Kelly, Tim Seifert and Will Young. Two more players will be added across the last two games, and the squad for the fifth ODI has not been confirmed. New Zealand’s Test squad to face India is due in the coming days.
So if India do finish the job in Hamilton, the two games at Bay Oval will come against a home side without Latham, Mitchell, Nicholls or Phillips. Shreyas Iyer takes over from Shubman Gill as India’s captain for those two matches.