Zampa running hot despite unusual medical condition

Australia's Adam Zampa says he's learned to manage a medical condition that sees him lose feeling in his spinning fingers during periods of cold weather.

The 28-year-old was recently diagnosed with Raynaud's disease, where arteries that supply blood to a person's skin become narrow in cold temperatures, leading to numbness in the affected area, mostly the fingers and toes.

While far from a serious condition, it's a potential nightmare for a spin bowler like Zampa who relies so heavily on his fingers to impart turn and drift on the ball.

As temperatures in the infamously windy city of Wellington dropped towards the mid-teens during the fourth T20 against New Zealand on Friday night, Zampa grabbed an ice bag filled with boiling hot water to promote blood flow to his fingers during the Kiwis' innings.

"I can manage it OK," Zampa said on Saturday morning.

"I don't know how it's come about – it only started a couple of years ago. But if it's chilly, my fingers go white and I start to lose feeling in them.

"So I've had to problem solve a little around that. Obviously hand warmers are massive, but sometimes they don't work as well as I need them to.

"Last night, I had the ice bag that's usually filled with ice for people's hamstrings or glutes, I had it filled with boiling water for my hands.

"I try not to make too many excuses around it, I just try and make sure my hands are warm when I'm about to bowl or take a catch.

"It's a little bit weird but I've worked out ways to make sure it's not too big of an issue."

Despite the chilly start, Zampa's fingers were running hot against the Black Caps on Friday as he and Australia's slow bowlers spun them to a series-levelling win.

Zampa, Ashton Agar and Glenn Maxwell finished with combined figures of 6-49 at an economy rate of just 4.45 an over and skipper Aaron Finch said the spin-friendly nature of the pitch at Sky Stadium means they might even consider a debut for uncapped leggie Tanveer Sangha in Sunday's series decider.

"We will look at every option, no doubt," Finch said on Friday night.

"No doubt (Sangha) will come up. I love having spinners in the side so that will always be a question that I ask of the selectors and the coach, how can we fit an extra spinner in.

"But the boys are playing nicely and the balance of the side feels really good at the moment."

The Australians will fly home immediately after Sunday's game, with Zampa to "play it by ear" regarding a return to play for the NSW Blues in domestic cricket in the coming weeks.

The leg-spinner debuted for NSW in 2012 but is yet to play for the Blues since re-signing with his home state after eight seasons at South Australia.

Zampa faces a busy winter ahead; he is scheduled to play in the Indian Premier League for the Royal Challengers Bangalore from April until June before he takes part in the debut season of The Hundred in the UK, which will run from late July until late August. Australia are also scheduled to play white-ball cricket in the West Indies in the middle of the year.

And with his wedding to partner Harriet scheduled for early April – it was postponed last year due to the pandemic – Zampa is yet to decide if he'll play for the Blues in the coming weeks, given he faces potentially five months away from home during the winter.

"It's obviously been a long few months so I'll get home and speak to Harriet about where my head's at," he said.

"I'm getting married in early April so that'll be important to spend some time with her and time at home.

"Cricket NSW have been really understanding around that and have left the option open for me to do what I like, basically. They've been really understanding for all the players, as most of the states have in the current landscape of a pandemic.

"But we can't really plan as cricketers that far ahead, especially in the current landscape that changes so quickly."

Qantas T20I tour of New Zealand 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Hamish Bennett, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.

1st T20: New Zealand won by 53 runs

2nd T20: New Zealand won by four runs

3rd T20: Australia won by 64 runs

4th T20: Australia won by 50 runs

5th T20: March 7, Sky Stadium, Wellington, 10am AEDT

All matches will be shown live in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo