WELLINGTON (AFP)
England coach Duncan Fletcher faces a fast-bowling quandary for Saturday's second one-day international against New Zealand with Andrew Caddick struggling to find his feet on home soil.

Christchurch-born Caddick was below par during Wednesday's one-day defeat to New Zealand, conceding 51 from 7.3 unsuccessful overs, and Matthew Hoggard is in line to take his place when the series resumes at Wellington on Saturday.

Caddick's decision to skip the tour to India before Christmas, which was influenced by the regional tension at the time, has left him short of match practice. He needs to begin firing quickly with the three-Test series looming or England will face a dilemma over whether to swallow their pride and ask Darren Gough to stay on for the Test series.

Gough's superb spell of fast bowling on Wednesday evening, when he took four wickets in 11 balls, has increased speculation that he may be retained for the Test series. He made himself unavailable for the Tests in India prompting the selectors to ignore him for the Test leg of the New Zealand tour, but with Caddick off colour England will be left relying on the inexperienced Hoggard to carry the attack.

"Caddick is not bowling as well as he has in the past," Fletcher said. "He has lost a little bit of oomph and we have got to look at that area. Andy had a break from cricket of about six months and sometimes it takes a bit of time to come back into the form. He perhaps just needs to get back into the rhythm but he has lost a bit of pace on this trip."

Caddick has clearly been targeted for a hostile reception from the New Zealand batsmen with Chris Nevin in particular setting about destroying his confidence in the Christchurch one-dayer. However, Fletcher refused to be drawn on Gough's predicament and instead put the ball firmly in the court of chairman of selectors David Graveney.

"There are 10 days to go until the end of the one-day series so Nasser and I have not discussed selection for that leg," he said. "It's a complex issue and it has to come from the chairman of selectors. He is a very good bowler but Goughie chose not to play in the Test series in India."

Wicketkeeper Jamie Foster is also under threat after England's four-wicket defeat on Wednesday evening. Foster has dropped five catches and missed two stumpings in the past six matches, and Marcus Trescothick may be handed the gloves for the day-night match at Wellington's Basin Reserve. "We will have a look at it and a couple of options are available to us," Fletcher said. "I have to sit down with the selectors back home and decide if we need to make any changes or not.

"Foster is a young guy that we thought kept and batted well in the Tests in India. He is just going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment and we will have to look at that. We would like him to bat up the order but at the moment it is not easy for him because he is going in when we have lost a few wickets."

Middlesex batsman Owais Shah could provide more stability to a shaky middle order which on Wednesday collapsed, losing seven wickets for 26 runs in a spell that cost England the match. "I've had a discussion with Nasser and we were exasperated by the whole team performance the other night," the coach said. "It was a game we really lost rather than New Zealand won. We got ourselves in a good position but we showed a lack of experience in the middle order.

"We have got a lot of players who have not played much one-day cricket and that is an area we have to look at."

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