In a major turn of events, Tim Seifert is going to be absent from New Zealand’s T20I series against the West Indies due to a finger injury. The flamboyant batsman has been declared unfit for the series, and Mitchell Hay will take his place in New Zealand’s squad.
Seifert out of NZ vs WI T20Is with broken finger
Tim Seifert’s right index finger received heavy impact when he was batting in the Ford Trophy match against Wellington Firebirds, and he got it X-rayed afterwards. The X-ray turned out to show a fracture and that was why Seifert got injured which led not only to the end of his participation in the Ford Trophy match but also to his unavailability for the New Zealand T20I series against West Indies at home.
The explosive right-handed batsman who has played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2025 was in magnificent form during the T20I series against England which was just for New Zealand, where he scored 62 runs in two innings with a fantastic strike rate of 155. The BlackCaps are going to lose out on his bold batting strategies, and not having him during the first six overs will be another disadvantage.
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“We’re all feeling for Tim. He’s an important player in this T20 team due to his weight in the batting order and also because of his role as a keeper so he will be missed in the next five matches. He demonstrated in the recent T20 series that he is getting closer to his best form, and it is thus disheartening that this has been stopped as we move closer to a major event. We also hope that Tim will recuperate quickly and that he will be back on the field very shortly,” was the reaction of the New Zealand head coach Rob Walter as quoted by NZC.
Mitchell Hay is going to play instead of Seifert in the New Zealand squad for T20I against West Indies.
As Tim Seifert is out, New Zealand has called wicketkeeper-batter Mitchell Hay to their squad for the West Indies T20Is. Hay has batted in 11 T20Is and scored 87 runs at a low average of 12.4 and a strike rate of 127.9. Even though he wasn’t that great in T20I, the home side may still benefit from him as he was brilliant in ODI against Pak, scoring a stunning 99, and he could thus be the one to provide the team with some runs.
