Jos Buttler an injury doubt for Hamilton Test

Surrey's Ollie Pope - who played as a specialist batsman at Bay Oval - is on standby to take the gloves in the wicketkeeper's absence

buttlerinjurynov28

England could be without Jos Buttler for the second Test against New Zealand after the wicketkeeper suffered a back injury ahead of a gym session.

Buttler will be assessed prior to the match which starts at 10pm (GMT) on Thursday.

Surrey's Ollie Pope - who played as a specialist batsman at Bay Oval - is on standby to take the gloves in Buttler’s absence.

England captain Joe Root confirmed Buttler’s situation while hinting that the tourists could make changes from the XI which lost by an innings and 65 runs at Mount Maunganui.

Joe Root has "full support" of England team, Ben Stokes insists

"Jos has tweaked his back in the gym," said the skipper. "We’ll have to find out a little bit more information on that throughout today and tomorrow and see where he’s at.

"There's a number of different combinations we could go with and I think a lot of that will rely on the surface. 

"Trying to find the best combination which would take 20 wickets and then balancing that in terms of getting the batting where we want it to be. It could be an allrounder, we'll see."

Warwickshire allrounder Chris Woakes could come into the reckoning while Kent’s Zak Crawley is also in with a chance of making his maiden Test appearance.

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