Black Caps batter Henry Nicholls running out of lives after latest failure

ANALYSIS: What to do with the out of sorts Henry Nicholls?

There will be no shortage of critics eager for him to be axed, after the under-pressure Black Cap again failed with the bat on Friday afternoon, dismissed for two on the second day of the opening test against Sri Lanka.

He’ll likely get another chance at his hometown Hagley Oval before the test is done and dusted, but time is certainly ticking for the No 4 to contribute with willow in hand as questions regarding his spot in the team only grow louder.

The 31-year-old has mustered just 230 runs at 16.4 in his 14 innings since he struck 105 against South Africa at Hagley last February, and he hasn’t scored more than 39 since the second innings of the same match.

Fresh from scores of 4, 7, 30 and 29 against England, Nicholls had a prime opportunity to bat the final session and help put New Zealand in a strong position in reply to Sri Lanka’s 355.

However, having faced only five balls on a surface offering assistance to an attack which had honed in on a troubling length, Nicholls was caught at mid-wicket after rocking back and attempting to pull Lahiru Kumara.

“It just felt like a shot you’d see from someone who is getting ahead of themselves, they’re thinking ‘I need runs, I need to score, I need to go get some runs’,” Spark Sports commentator and former Black Caps opener Mark Richardson said.

“As opposed to a player who is just going through the process, the process they go through when they’re having success.”

When a downcast Nicholls trudged towards the sheds, New Zealand had lost 3-9 and were 76-3 in response to a total the tourists would have been chuffed with after being sent in.

No doubt he spent the rest of the day ruing the shot he played, wishing he had hung tough with opener Tom Latham (67), whose 27th test 50 helped a spluttering New Zealand reach 162-5 at stumps.

What’s clear is Nicholls, who was emphatically backed by coach Gary Stead ahead of the England series, will almost certainly get another chance in Christchurch to save face.

Should he again fail, all eyes will be on Stead and whether he retains him for the second test at the Basin Reserve (starting March 17), the last test before they are away to Bangladesh in November.

Glenn Phillips, who struck a half ton in his only test – against Australia in 2020 – hit 147 for Otago against Canterbury in a Plunket Shield match this week and shapes as a possible replacement.

Latham (5041), who became the second leading run scorer amongst New Zealand openers on Friday, will certainly be on deck when the team fronts in Wellington.

Only John Wright (5260) has scored more runs in the tricky role than Latham, the 30-year-old who has opened in all but three of his 128 innings.

The first Kiwi to join a now 25-strong group of openers to score 5000+ test runs at an average of 40+ had to be at his grafting and patient best on Friday, too.

As usual, his judgement was top-notch before he was bowled by a cracking Asitha Fernando yorker, repeatedly shouldering arms against an attack which showed New Zealand how to build sustained pressure.

Kumara was particularity impressive, hitting the gloves hard and reaching 145km. It was he, having troubled Kane Williamson with a string of deliveries back of a length, who had the former New Zealand captain caught at short cover off his bowling for one.

The execution was in stark contrast to erratic Black Caps seamers Blair Tickner and Neil Wagner, who combined for 0-171 from 30 overs, leaving the excellent Tim Southee and Matt Henry (9-144 from 52.4) to shoulder the load for a faltering pace-attack.