New Zealand have suffered a major blow ahead of the T20I tri-series against South Africa and Zimbabwe as opening batter Finn Allen has been sidelined from the assignment due to an injury. The 26-year-old sustained an injury to his foot while featuring for the San Francisco Unicorns in Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 in a match against the LA Knight Riders on July 7.
The injury will keep Allen on the sidelines for some time and he will not be able to make it to the upcoming tri-series which is set to commence from July 14. The Black Caps will soon name a replacement for the opening batter, who will fly back home for further examination.
This is nothing short of a massive blow for the New Zealand team as Allen had been in fine form in MLC and is in fact, the tournament's fifth-highest run-scorer with a total of 333 runs under his name in nine matches. He could have given some valiant contributions with the bat for the Black Caps in the tri-series, however that will not be happening now.
Allen has had an impressive T20I career for the Black Caps
Allen has had a decent T20I career, playing a total of 52 matches for the national team and scoring 1285 runs including two hundreds and five fifties. He has a brilliant strike-rate of 163.27 in the format with his highest individual score being 137. The opening batter is known for being a hard-hitter of the ball, helping his side in getting off to fantastic starts in an inning on many occasions.
Meanwhile, the tri-series is set to be contested in Zimbabwe with the opening match to be played between the hosts and South Africa. New Zealand's opening match of the series will be against the Proteas on July 16 at the Harare Sports Club. Mitchell Santner will be leading the Black Caps' side which consists of star players like Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry.
New Zealand squad for tri-series: Mitch Santner (c), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi.