Christchurch, Dec 2 (IANS): New Zealand head coach Gary Stead on Monday said left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner is in contention to play in the second Test against England at Wellington.

Santner took 13 wickets in his last Test as New Zealand won by 113 runs over India in Pune to secure the historic series win. After Santner missed out on the last Test of the tour due to a side strain, he was included in the squad for New Zealand’s second and third Tests against England in Wellington and Hamilton, respectively.

"That's the likely big decision to make. I guess Mitch's selection is on the back of what happened in Wellington last (season) with it being very, very spin-friendly. But we will monitor that when we get up there and have a look," said Stead to reporters.

New Zealand lost the series opener to England by eight wickets at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, where tons of dropped catches and poor run of opener Devon Conway and wicketkeeper Tom Blundell came under the scanner. But Stead has backed the duo to get big runs in the remaining two matches.

"We've got a lot of faith in Tom Blundell. Glenn Phillips has done an amazing job batting with the tail as well, and has become really adept at that. Tom Blundell played some critical innings for us ... and we think he's our man to keep coming right, and we have a lot of faith that he will do so."

"Everyone wants more all the time. I think opening in New Zealand conditions can be some of the toughest conditions in the world to play. Devon's a class player, and you don't lose that class over a week, a month. He wants more, don't get me wrong, but we still have a lot of faith in the way that Dev plays," he concluded.