Much to my disgust, while South Africa host England and Australia host West Indies for casual Boxing Day Tests, the BLACKCAPS will be playing Sri Lanka in an ODI. One day kiwis will be able to recount vivid Boxing Day memories of our own instead of having to draw on those from Australia, one day folks, one day. 

We do however have an ODI series coming our way and there's enough funk in this BLACKCAPS squad to ease the pain of not having a Boxing Day Test. Trent Boult's absence from the squad for the first three ODIs is nothing less than smart, so is the juggling of Tim Southee's workload for two reasons. First is the fact that they are bowlers and our best bowlers at that so they simply can't play every game whether Tests or ODIs, if we want to enjoy Boult and Southee for another 5-10 years then they need to enjoy the odd rest. 

Resting these two in-turn presents opportunities to other bowlers and giving these bowlers more international cricket is crucial as Boult and Southee will forever battle injuries, such is life as a bowler. Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry have all graduated from up and coming bowlers to members of The Stable; being able to call on these lads in the absence of Southee and Boult is a great luxury. All four of these bowlers feel like international cricketers, which is a good start.

As always, Milne will get everyone excited with his pace. I will however be interested in his consistency, both in terms of his performances (taking wickets with a nice economy each game) and getting on the park for each game. 

Milne and McClenaghan give this bowling attack an aggressive edge. There's pace, but more importantly they know how to use their pace and aggression to get the best results. Compared to our Test attack where only Neil Wagner offers that type of aggression, this ODI series will showcase that we have some depth in the 'angry bowler' niche.

I would love to see the ODI team adopt the same look as the Test team with four pace-bowlers and a spinning all-rounder. In saying that, Bracewell and Henry do offer the greatest similarity in our bowling attack so selecting Ish Sodhi to partner Mitchell Santner in offering spin over either Henry or Bracewell could be a funky twist.

If Santner gives the Test team balance, then this is intensified in ODIs. From what I've seen, Santner's batting is more suited to ODI cricket where his stroke-play enjoys greater freedom so the combination of that and 10 overs of tight left-arm spin is an asset. Sodhi played in the African Limited Overs tour earlier this year and is coming off a diet of T20 domestic cricket so his leg-spin has been finely tuned for limited overs cricket. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Santner and Sodhi combination rolled out for at least two ODIs.

Options like these will ensure that Sri Lanka never really know how the BLACKCAPS bowling attack will look. I'd assume that Sri Lanka will target both spinners though which could see four pace bowlers picked most of the time.

While the spine of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi is in our batting line-up, other players can fill in the gaps. George Worker and Henry Nicholls have both been selected, with Worker coming off a few games in Africa while Nicholls is hunting for his debut. I view Worker as cover for the top-order, which could leave Nicholls to make his debut in the middle-order at no.5.

We love our all-rounders but with Santner offering spin and some strokes, having Nicholls bat at no.5 will bolster the batting line-up. Nicholls has List A average of 44.07 with a strike rate of 89.18 and from what I've seen he's not the same sort of power-hitter as an Anderson or Neesham. Nicholls could fit perfectly into this middle-order as he'll knock it around, hit the necessary boundaries and set up Ronchi and Santner to have a whack.

To be honest, I'd rather see Nicholls play than Worker. 

Here's the line-up I'd wanna see with some rotation in the bowlers...

McCullum, Guptill, Williamson, Taylor, Nicholls, Ronchi, Santner, Bracewell, Milne, Henry (/Sodhi), McClenaghan.

From the look of Sri Lanka's squad, they will be better equipped for ODI cricket than they were for the Tests, even if a lot of the Test squad are staying on for the ODIs. Tillakaratne Dilshan joins the crew, he's a beast who can take the game away from the opposition like McCullum plus there's that Lasith Malinga fella coming into the mix as well. 

The main point of interest for me in Sri Lanka's squad are their two spinners Sachithra Senanayake and Ajantha Mendis. Two off-spinners with funky actions they will be the focal point of Sri Lanka's attack; Mendis has 152 wickets at an average of 21.54 and has the variety to trouble the kiwi batsmen. 

Sri Lanka will pose a greater threat in these ODIs than they did in the Tests which will make for a fun series. The absence of Southee and Boult will even things up, while ahead of the first few ODIs I'd suggest that the work of the spinners or whoever is bowling during the middle stages will be crucial. Both teams have the talent and the knowledge of their ODI gameplans that this will be a fun, competitive series so I guess I'll get over not having a Boxing Day Test.