Opening day washed out

Tea New Zealand won the toss and decided to bowl against England

Graeme Swann has been forced out of the Test but Stuart Broad is back © Associated Press

The opening day of the series was abandoned without a ball bowled in Dunedin as heavy rain swept across the ground shortly after New Zealand had won the toss and put England into bat.

Although there were periods when the rain eased off, and occasionally the groundstaff would make it to the middle, further bursts kept ensuring no mopping process was able to start. The umpires called the day off at the tea interval and time will not be made up over the remaining days, with a 10am start and late finish, although the forecast is not too promising.

The day was dominated by news of Graeme Swann being forced out of the tour for elbow surgery after Monty Panesar had been named in England's team for this Test. There was also a return for Stuart Broad after his heel problems.

Despite the overhead conditions, New Zealand handed a debut to left-arm spinner Bruce Martin instead of playing Ian Butler as a fourth seamer. Butler, who hasn't played a Test since 2004, was called into the squad after Doug Bracewell was ruled out when he cut his foot on glass as he cleaned up after a party.

Martin, 32, was first part of a New Zealand squad in 2000 but did not get another call-up until the tour of South Africa earlier this year.

New Zealand 1 Hamish Rutherford, 2 Peter Fulton, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Dean Brownlie, 6 Brendon McCullum (capt), 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Tim Southee, 9 Bruce Martin, 11 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult

England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Nick Compton, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Joe Root, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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