Jackson Bird does not think he will feature in Australia's tour of Sri Lanka despite taking a maiden five-wicket haul that has the team poised to regain the No.1 Test ranking.
The seamer, who was surprisingly downcast after what was on paper his best performance, feared his Test career was over after suffering stress fractures in his back during the 2013 Ashes. He played only one first-class game the following summer at home and slid down the pecking order of Australian quicks. Bird also lost trust in his body, unsure whether it could withstand the volume of cricket required to add to his three-Test career.
"I had probably a year out of the game where my back was pretty sore the whole time so I thought, there's a lot of good bowlers in Australia that probably overtook me," Bird said. "I've been lucky I guess with a few guys getting injured to make this tour but I never really lost confidence in my own ability and being able to play well at Test cricket. 
"But I lost confidence in my body and I didn't know when I was going to get injured again, so sometimes it's pretty hard going into a game when you are fit and in the back of your mind you think your body could go any minute."
It's doubtful Bird would be playing in New Zealand if the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Peter Siddle were available. Conditions in spin-friendly Sri Lanka are unlikely to suit his style of bowling, which means he could go from hero to zero.
"I can't really tell what's going to go on in the next Test series in Sri Lanka," Bird said. "I think they'll probably go with extra spinners, but I've just been enjoying being back around the group and playing Test cricket." Bird was the least used of Australia's three frontline quicks but captured the key wickets of Kane Williamson and Corey Anderson, who batted through the first session. The Tasmania-based quick also removed Matt Henry, who made a fighting 66 in a 118-run stand for the eighth wicket with BJ Watling. Bird, however, was not happy with the way he bowled, though there has undoubtedly been times where he would have bowled better without the rewards. "I started today and yesterday with a couple of expensive overs and bowled too full and too straight and then had a decent spell after lunch and got a few wickets and then the spell after that was inconsistent as well. [I] bowled too full and too straight again so it's pretty frustrating, but that's the way the game goes sometimes," he said.
Australia finished day four on 1-70 requiring a further 131 to complete a 2-0 series win against the Black Caps. Although they faltered in Hobart in 2011 chasing 241, the Hagley Oval pitch is not showing much sign of deterioration and the Kiwi attack has not extracted any reverse swing from the ball, unlike the Australians. The Black Caps, however, are still harbouring hope of triggering a dramatic attack to square the series and deny Australia the No.1 ranking.
"We haven't got heaps of runs to play with but if we can deny them and hopefully a couple of things go our way, then we're a sniff if we can go bang-bang in the morning," Anderson said. "We managed to run through the tail pretty quickly in the first innings after they'd put on about 400 for the first six wickets."


SCOREBOARD   SECOND TEST
New Zealand v Australia
At Hagley Oval, Christchurch Stumps, day four
New Zealand 1st innings 370
Australia 1st innings 505

NEW ZEALAND (2ND INNS)
Batsman                                           Runs Balls
T LATHAM    c Nevill b Pattinson             39   71
M GUPTILL    c Nevill b Pattinson               0   12
K WILLIAMSON   b Bird                             97   210
H NICHOLLS   c Smith b Pattinson       2   10
B McCULLUM   c Warner b Hazlewood     25   27
C ANDERSON    b Bird                             40   148
B WATLING    c Burns b Pattinson     46   77
T SOUTHEE    c Smith b Bird               0   2
M HENRY           b Bird                             66   93
N WAGNER    not out                               3   13
T BOULT            c Pattinson b Bird               0   5
Sundries           (2b 14lb 1nb)                     17
Total                  All out for                    335
Fall: 8 (Guptill), 66 (Latham), 72 (Nicholls), 105 (McCullum), 207 (Anderson), 210 (Williamson), 210 (Southee), 328 (Watling), 335 (Henry), 335 (Boult).
Bowling: J Hazlewood 34-11-92-1, J Pattinson 26-8-77-4, J Bird 17.1-5-59-5, N Lyon 17-3-42-0, M Marsh 17-4-49-0 (1nb).
Batting time: 493 mins. Overs: 111.1

AUSTRALIA (2ND INNS)
Batsman                                           Runs Balls
J BURNS         not out                             27   66
D WARNER  c Watling b Wagner             22   33
U KHAWAJA  not out                             19   23
Sundries          (2nb)                              2
Total                 one wicket for                     70
Fall: 49 (Warner).
Bowling: T Boult 7-0-30-0, T Southee 2-1-9-0, M Henry 4-1-17-0 (1nb), N Wagner 6-0-13-1 (1nb), C Anderson 1-0-1-0.
Batting time: 87 mins Overs: 20
Umpires: R Martinesz, R Kettleborough
Match Referee: Chris Broad (ENG).
Third Umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG).