Henry and Ferguson both walked off in Christchurch, and New Zealand go to Wellington without them
New Zealand have reshuffled their pace attack for the last three T20Is against India: Matt Henry is done for the series and Lockie Ferguson is rested for the third game.
Oct 25, 2026
New Zealand are 2-0 down in the T20I series, and they will play the third game in Wellington on Tuesday without Lockie Ferguson or Matt Henry. Both fast bowlers left the field during Saturday’s four-wicket defeat in Christchurch, and New Zealand Cricket has now moved its pace attack around for the rest of the series, calling it “planned workload management”.
Henry is finished with the T20Is altogether. Ferguson misses only Wellington.
Who goes where
Ferguson will not travel to Wellington. He goes to Auckland on Sunday instead and will be available for the fourth T20I at Eden Park on 30 October and the fifth at Seddon Park in Hamilton on 1 November.
Henry stays in Christchurch and misses all three remaining games. He joins the ODI squad in Auckland ahead of the first of five ODIs on 4 November.
Kyle Jamieson, who did not play in either of the first two games, travels to Wellington for the third T20I. He then stays there for Canterbury’s Ford Trophy game against Wellington on 31 October before linking up for the ODIs. Blair Tickner joins the T20I squad in Wellington for the last three games, Josh Clarkson goes to Auckland for the last two, and Matt Fisher travels as cover for Tuesday only before going back to the New Zealand A side for their second four-day game against India A.
“We’re very fortunate with the depth in the squad to be able to call upon different players to help manage our pacers’ workloads, and to try and ensure they are best placed to perform for the team for all the cricket coming up,” head coach Rob Walter said.
Two overs and a tight calf
The word workload is doing a lot of work in that statement. Henry bowled two overs on Saturday, one of them a maiden, for 11 runs, and then walked off. Ferguson went off after three overs that cost 37.
“Yeah, Matt experienced, like, a tight calf,” Mitchell Santner said after the game. The captain called them “just a couple of precautionary injuries” and said New Zealand did not want to risk either player with so much cricket still to come, adding that there could be a bit of rotation through the series and the ODIs.
New Zealand have reason to be careful with that calf. Henry missed the third Test against England at Trent Bridge in June with a low-grade strain in his left calf, after first feeling it during the second Test at The Oval.
Neither had made much of a dent before that. Across the two games in Christchurch, Henry bowled 5.4 overs for 68 runs without taking a wicket. Ferguson bowled six overs for 71 and took one.
The quicks have been the weak spot
India chased 226 in the opener and 181 on Saturday, and New Zealand’s seamers took a beating both times. On Saturday Henry, Ferguson, Jacob Duffy and Nathan Smith bowled 11.5 overs between them for 123 runs and two wickets. Santner and Michael Bracewell, the two spinners, bowled eight overs for 56, and Santner took 4 for 21.
That makes the pace changes less of a blow than they look on paper. Duffy and Smith are still in the squad, and so is Adam Milne, who took 1 for 43 from three overs in the first game and was left out of the second. With Jamieson and Tickner added, New Zealand have five seam options for Wellington, and I would not be surprised to see them lean harder on Santner and Bracewell again.
The third T20I starts at 8pm local time, which is 12:30pm IST. Lose it and the series is gone.