Cairns, Hitchcock ruled out

New Zealand's build up for the crucial match against India suffered a double blow after Chris Cairns and Paul Hitchcock ruled out due to injuries.

New Zealand's build up for tomorrow's crucial TVS Cup triangular series match against India suffered a double blow on Wednesday after reliable allrounder Chris Cairns and frontline bowler Paul Hitchcock ruled out due to injuries.

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"Both Hitchcock and Cairns are out. We'll announce the final XI tomorrow out of the 12 remaining players," New Zealand coach Ashley Ross told newspersons here.

Cairns, who has been carrying a niggling hamstring injury for months, had to miss his team's first two matches and could only turn up on the field in the Kiwi's previous encounter at Pune against Australia.

Sources said that Cairns' injury got aggravated at Pune and so the team management decided to rest him.

"He was close to playing tomorrow. But we assessed his injury and decided he cannot play," Ross said.

Hitchcock, on the other hand, missed the Pune match due to a side strain and the Kiwi think tank decided to give him more time to recover.