The England wicket-keeper has been sidelined with a broken thumb.
There is bad news for Somerset and England fans as Craig Kieswetter will be out for six weeks after fracturing his thumb during last week’s County Championship match with Warwickshire.
Kieswetter has been a regular feature in the Three Lions one-day squad for the last few years but this injury will almost certainly put him out of the three-game series with New Zealand next month.
That is followed immediately by the ICC Champions Trophy and the young wicket-keeper would probably have been hoping to have established himself more of a role in the squad by then.
“Obviously this is very disappointing for us at this stage of the campaign an it is also very disappointing for Craig,” Somerset’s director of cricket Dave Nosworthy said on BBC Sport.
It could mean that the 25-year-old’s county teammate, Jos Buttler, will be given further opportunity to make the ODI gloves his own after Buttler was handed the role during the winter due to Kieswetter’s poor form with the bat.
Kieswetter has made 196 runs so far in the 2013 County Championship Division One and the keeper has also taken 14 catches.
The Somerset man has played 46 ODIs for England since making his debut against Bangladesh in February 2010.
Since then Kieswetter has gone on to score 1,053 runs in the 50-over game at an average of 30.11.
The South African-born cricketer last played for his country in January of this year during England’s successful tour of India – although the keeper made a duck and was subsequently dropped for Buttler for the Black Caps series.
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