Guptill to miss New Zealand's final T20 against Sri Lanka, Taylor available again

An abdomen strain has ruled Martin Guptill out of New Zealand's third Twenty20 against Sri Lanka, but Ross Taylor is fit to play.

An abdominal strain has ruled Martin Guptill out of the final Twenty20 International.

New Zealand has reported mixed news on the injury front ahead of the third Twenty20 against Sri Lanka, with Martin Guptill missing out and Ross Taylor set to return.

Guptill suffered a right abdomen strain while fielding in the second T20 in Kandy on Tuesday and did not bat as the Black Caps claimed a four-wicket victory to clinch the best-of-three-match series.

Hamish Rutherford, who has not played an international T20 since 2013, has been called up to replace Guptill.

Read: De Grandhomme and Bruce prosper as NZ clinches T20 series

Tom Bruce may miss out due to a knee problem he suffered while making a half-century on Tuesday, but Taylor – absent in Kandy due to a left hip injury – has been declared fit to return.

"We've still got 48 hours or so to the next match, so we'll see how [Bruce] pulls through," coach Gary Stead said.

"Ross could have played [in Kandy] if we'd desperately needed him to. We just wanted to take the sensible measure of not putting him under undue pressure when we didn't need to."