Left-handed opening batsman Mark Richardson is now on the "extremely unlikely to play" list in the first New Zealand-Pakistan Test, starting in Auckland tomorrow, after injuring his back at the New Zealand side's last training run today.

Selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee said if the Test had started today then Richardson would have been unable to play.

One-day newcomer Lou Vincent has been called in as cover for Richardson and there is every possibility that he will open the innings resulting in the minimum disruption to the rest of the batting order.

The injuries just keep coming for New Zealand who had already been forced to withdraw left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori from the side originally named.

Pakistan was unable to shed any light on its possible playing XI preferring to wait and see who is fit tomorrow morning.

If Napoleon and Hitler had suffered the same injury woes that have afflicted both the sides before the opening Test in the National Bank series, they would never have attempted their historic assaults on Moscow.

Both camps resemble the defeated armies of both dictators in retreat with enough injuries to send a medical insurance company broke.

Pakistan was still hoping that Inzamam-ul-Haq would be sufficiently recovered to play tomorrow and he gingerly tried out his groin injury in net training today.

However, Saeed Anwar, who now seems likely to stay on tour may be recovered sufficiently to play the second Test starting in Christchurch on Thursday next week.

Richardson's probable loss is a concern to New Zealand.

He has been in good form in the domestic Shell Trophy season having scored 675 runs in seven Trophy games.

"It has been a little frustrating not being able to play Tests. Once you have had a taste you want to be back into it and I haven't played a Test since the Boxing Day Test against Zimbabwe," Richardson said.

"I had a slow start to the Trophy as I had a few things to work on," he said.

But it wasn't long before he was starting to make his effects felt and the reputation he has developed for achieving big scores has been maintained with 166 and 72 in the last Trophy game against Central Districts.

He felt he should have gone on to score a double century against CD.

Among the things in his game he had worked on was using his feet to the spinners.

"I actually wanted to work on a few more options against the spinners," he said.

Working on preparing for the left-arm seamers of Wasim Akram had now been rendered redundant with Wasim's return to Pakistan.

"It is a bit disappointing that two of the biggest names aren't around [Wasim and Shoaib Akhtar]," he said.

He had been looking forward to facing them both, especially after his experiences in South Africa against their pace battery.

"It is a little bit of the fear of the unknown. But you get used to it," he said.

"Everyone was bowling quite quickly in South Africa and here Akram would have been wobbling it a bit. But Waqar Younis is a very good bowler and I talked with Chris Gaffaney [who played in the New Zealand A team which beat Pakistan by an innings and 54 runs in the last game before the Test] about Mohammad Sami," he said.

A transplanted Aucklander, now living in Dunedin, Richardson said it would be quite a special feeling walking out onto Eden Park where he has played very little cricket as a batsman.

"It looks greenish, but a bit soft. But it is not until you're out there that you get a feel for it.

"You just have to watch the ball," he said.

Having batted in international cricket more with Craig Spearman, Richardson has to form a liaison with Matthew Bell.

They have talked about how they will do things but as Richardson said: "The only way to get an understanding is out in the middle."

In the Otago side he had a good relationship with Gaffaney developed over several big partnerships but he hasn't got that going with anyone in the New Zealand team yet, he said.

Ironically, Richardson began to feel the pain in his back while making the quotes above at a press conference after training at Eden Park. He suffered the injury during training but it was only when he warmed down that it became apparent.

A final decision on whether Richardson will play is not likely to be made until before the game tomorrow morning.

With showers forecast tomorrow, and heavier rain on Friday, it may be that time may be put to his advantage if there is a delayed start to the game.

© CricInfo