Cricket: Blackcaps Lockie Ferguson, Ross Taylor nearing return from injury

After almost five months on the sidelines, pace bowler Lockie Ferguson appears to be close to a comeback.

Ferguson hasn't played for the Blackcaps since the West Indies series in November, due to a partial stress fracture in his back.

But with a couple of games of club cricket under his belt, the 29-year-old has now joined the one-day squad and is training fully, with an eye on a return for the Twenty20 series against Bangladesh, starting March 28.

"With the T20 squad being named tomorrow, it's great to see Lockie [Ferguson] back and on track for that as well," says Blackcaps coach Gary Stead.

In other encouraging injury news, veteran batsman Ross Taylor's return to the Blackcaps side seems imminent.

On Monday, Taylor was ruled out of the second ODI against Bangladesh, after failing a fitness test for his troublesome hamstring.

Stead stresses that medical staff are simply erring on the side of caution in managing Taylor's return, with one eye on June's test series against England and World Test Championship final against India.

His next opportunity to play will be in the third ODI against Bangladesh on Sunday.

"It's not worth the risk at this stage and it's also an opportunity for us to continually see Devon [Conway] and Will [Young] in those roles," says Stead.

One new face at this week's training sessions will be that of White Ferns' captain Sophie Devine.

Devine is spending some time embedded behind the scenes with the team, aiming to learn some valuable lessons to take into this month's T20 series against the world champion Australians and beyond.

"It's part of her learning, seeing what happens in our environment, and it's great to get her alongside some of the leaders in our team as well," says Stead.

"It's great to have her in and around the team and hopefully we can learn off her too."

The ace batsman says it will be a valuable chance to peek behind the curtain of one of the world's best sides.

"It's an awesome opportunity to spend time within the Blackcaps camp," says Devine. "It's funny, we spend a lot of time playing alongside each other, but not much actual time in each other's camp.

"For me, it's just a bit of a leadership opportunity and a bit of personal development, and see how they go about things.

"Obviously, they've had a great amount of success. If I can take a couple things out of their environment to take back to the White Ferns, I'll certainly do that."

From a match perspective, Stead wants to see his side keep their feet on the throats of the Bangladeshis, whom he expects to respond strongly from their demoralising defeat in the opening match.

"It's always nice when you start with the intensity that we did throughout, especially that bowling performance, but then also the way that we started our batting. We really made a statement with that as well.

"We're looking to continue that, but then also expect that Bangladesh will bounce back considerably from the way that they played.

"If you look back at the touring teams who have been here this year, we've seen improvement in them as we go on and we expect that will be the same with Bangladesh.

"We're certainly not taking them lightly at all."

Join us for live updates of the second ODI between the Blackcaps and Bangladesh from 2pm Tuesday