Vettori pondering Fulton inclusion

Gareth Hopkins kept wicket on the tour of England and could do again in Australia

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Captain Daniel Vettori has hinted there could be a bit of a re-think of the New Zealand line-up for the first Test against Australia.

After going down by six wickets to New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground in their only warm-up match, Vettori said opting for an extra batsman and one less pace bowler was now being considered for the Test at the Gabba, which starts on Thursday.

Aside from Jamie How’s outstanding 170, Vettori was unhappy with the batting effort which saw the Black Caps score 266 and 256 in their innings setting the hosts a chase of 162 which they achieved with relative ease.

A four-pronged pace bowling attack of Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Iain O'Brien and Tim Southee backed up by Vettori and Jesse Ryder had looked the most likely option for the fast Gabba wicket.

But it is now possible that Peter Fulton, who is due to arrive in Brisbane today, could slot in to bolster the batting with Southee the likely bowler to miss out.

Wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins, who is also due to join the squad today, is another option should coach John Bracewell opt to play Brendon McCullum as a batsman only because of his back problem.

"There are a couple of decisions that may need to be made to try to make sure that balance is right, if we did have enough batting with myself coming in at seven," said Vettori.

“It’s a fine line whether we’ll get more out of another batsman coming in or a fourth seamer. In the next few days well have a look at the wicket in Brisbane and go from there.”

Whatever the decision, Vettori will be demanding a far better performance from his batsmen than they produced against New South Wales.

“We know to compete with Australia we have to put at least 350 on the board in the first innings and take our chances from there,” he added. “If we’ve to have any chance in Brisbane that’s what we have to do.”

Vettori was relatively happy with the bowling in Sydney with Chris Martin, making his comeback from a hamstring strain and a spell with Warwickshire, the pick of the bowlers with 5-88 off 35 overs.

But the Black Caps loss - their third to New South Wales after defeats in 1997 and 2004 - has left little doubt that Ricky Ponting’s men go into the two-Test series as red-hot favourites, despite their recent series defeat in India.

“Australia is the number one team in the world and we’re number seven, so we’ve got far more to prove than they have,” Vettori said.