Oram hoped to make a comeback in the later stages of the Chappell-Hadlee series against Australia but with his recovery slowing down in the last week, the beefy all-rounder has shelved the plan.

"My recovery is progressing positively. It's slowed down a little bit in the last week or so but that's probably to be expected because I had some quite dramatic improvements in the first week or two," Oram told Sunday News.

"You always get to a certain stage where it plateaus out a bit but I'm still making small steps towards coming back. Unfortunately, I can't give an indication of when that date will be. I won't be going over to Australia next week”, he added.

New Zealand will play India at home, beginning with a Twenty20 clash on February 25 in Christchurch.

"I've still got a fair bit to get through before I declare myself fit and get back into domestic cricket. Right now if I had to make a call, I'd say I'm pretty confident I will be back in time to play India," he said.

However, Oram is a little worried about how the fans might react if he misses the India series but plays in the second edition of the Indian Premier League in April.

"The signs are promising but you can never be too sure what might happen. At this stage, if all goes well and I play a bit of domestic cricket and get back into the Black Caps for the Indian series, the IPL will be a nice little bit of icing on the cake.

"I'm trying not to think about what might happen if things don't go to plan or if I miss the bulk of the Indian series or the whole Indian series.

"From a financial point of view and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work this out playing in the IPL is very beneficial.