Vincent fights for a Test comeback

Lou Vincent is determined to make the most of his late call-up into New Zealand's Test squad but he knows breaking into the middle order will be difficult. Vincent understood the selectors' decision to initially leave him out of the 15-man group to visit South Africa before adding him as a replacement for Peter Fulton, who requires knee surgery.

"I sat down with the selectors to say 'Hey, what are the reasons?'" Vincent told the Press. "What came out of it was the answers, where for the last 12 months I hadn't really done well for Auckland in the four-day stuff and that's pretty obvious. I hadn't actually deserved my spot in the Test team."

Vincent's four first-class outings for Auckland last summer brought him 142 runs at 23.66. However, the CB Series in Australia began a string of excellent one-day performances from Vincent, who has averaged 52.66 in his past ten ODIs.

He has two opportunities to regain his form in the longer version of the game with warm-up matches before the first Test starts at Johannesburg on November 8. "I'm looking forward to the practice games and if I get an opportunity to score runs then it's up to the selectors on where they want to bat me," he said.

Vincent's last exposure to Test cricket was as an opener in 2005 and since then he has been working on re-establishing his place in the middle order. However, he knows the competition for spots in the batting line-up will be intense.

"It's quite strong and I look at the depth of what we have with [Stephen] Fleming and [Scott] Styris, who have done well for so many years, and Fulton, who's shown he's consistent and quite a good player, and Ross Taylor, who's coming through as a pretty exciting future for New Zealand," Vincent said. "If I get an opportunity, I will do everything I can to try to take it."