New Zealand Recall Jamieson And O’Rourke For Ireland, England Test Series

Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke are back in New Zealand’s Test squad, as the Black Caps are gearing up for the one-off match against Ireland and the three-Test series in England.

Kane Williamson has also been included in the Test squad, as he is one of the main batters in the middle order. He is currently in the IPL as a strategic advisor for Lucknow Super Giants and is 539 runs away from becoming the first New Zealand player to reach 10,000 Test runs.

Meanwhile, New Zealand will miss Jacob Duffy, who picked up 81 wickets across formats last year and broke Sir Richard Hadlee’s record for most wickets by a New Zealand bowler in a single year.

"Jake has been hugely impressive and influential across all formats, but this is a far more important period of his life coming up and we're fully supportive of him and his wife Tash," said New Zealand head coach Rob Walter.

Jamieson is expected to play his first Test in more than two years after he suffered a stress fracture in his back in February 2024. Since then, he has only played white-ball cricket for the Black Caps. His return to red-ball cricket, including matches in the Plunket Shield, has been handled carefully by the team management.

O’Rourke is also on his way back to Test cricket after recovering from injury, and the team has taken things slowly with him as well. He was out for around eight months due to a back issue, and first eased back into action with a three-day match for Canterbury A against Auckland A. After that, he was tested more seriously in three ODIs in hot conditions in Bangladesh last month.

"It's a great privilege to start this next period of sustained red-ball cricket with all our pace bowlers ready to go. Kyle's been on a journey of getting his body ready for Test cricket. He's really fit and strong at the moment and will bring a unique edge to our bowling line-up. Will brings a quality set of skills and physical attributes which make him a hugely exciting addition to any Test team." said Rob Walter.

New Zealand Test Squad Ireland and England Series

Tom Latham (capt), Tom Blundell (wk), Kristian Clarke, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson, Will Young