Former New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor has alleged that fast bowler Neil Wagner was ‘forced to retire’ ahead of the first Test in the ongoing series in Australia. Notably, Wagner had announced the shock retirement ahead of Wellington Test but did take part in the match as a substitute fielder and carried drinks as well. He ended his career with 260 Test wickets – the fifth most for a Kiwi bowler. 

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Talking about Wagner’s retirement, Taylor said on ESPN’s Around the Wicket podcast: “I think it all makes sense a little bit now. There’s no sugarcoating it. I think it’s a forced retirement. If you listen to Wagner’s press conference, he was retiring, but it was after this last Test match. So he did make himself available.”

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“And to see that he isn’t selected … I think I do like and you do need to plan for the future, but a one-off Test against Australia in a must-win situation, I wouldn’t be looking much further than Neil Wagner. And I’m sure the Australian batters are sleeping easy that he’s not in the side,” Taylor added.

New Zealand lost the first Test by 172 runs and Kiwi skipper Tim Southee did not rule out Wagner’s return for the second and final Test of the series. Southee’s comments came after debutant pacer Will O’Rourke got injured in the first Test.

“We haven’t had a lot of discussions as yet,” Southee said after the first Test match. “We’ll see how Will scrubs up. The physio hasn’t sort of put a timeframe on it or how bad it is. We’ll just wait and see how Will goes over the next couple of days.”

The second Test starts from Friday (Mar 8) in Christchurch and New Zealand will be looking to win it in order to end the two-Test series at 1-1.

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