Stick to noodlin' the ball around, regardless of the format BJ.

You'd better get used to these Blackcaps squads featuring a few funky names across all three formats as we're starting to see a wave of second-tier talent prove their worth. After Colin de Grandhomme and Jeet Raval broke into the Test team, fellow Auckland Lockie Ferguson has worked his way into the ODI team to face Australia in the first leg of the Chappell-Hadlee/Hadlee-Chappell series.

De Grandhomme will look to take his swashbucklin' batting into the coloured clothing, while other notable selections are Todd Astle joining Mitchell Santner as the spinners, Colin Munro coming into the team hot off a booming century in Plunket shield cricket and the low key selection of BJ Watling; Watling's now settling in as the wicket-keeper in Test and ODI cricket.

There's plenty of buzz around Ferguson as he bowls fast and it kinda tells you all you need to know about typical kiwi bowlers that in the last five years, the kiwi public have worked themselves into a frenzy at the thought of Adam Milne and now Ferguson bowling at an unspecified (really fast) speed. Last year Astle got the strange call up to the T20 team after performing exceptionally well in Ford Trophy cricket (Astle wasn't so good in the T20's) and now it's Ferguson's turn to be selected in what a format that isn't his best.

Ferguson's in great form in four-day cricket, taking 15 wickets in the four games not including the current Plunket Shield round and has 21 First-Class games with 74 wickets at an average of 24.68 and 3.31rpo. Now that's a fantastic FC record, yet Ferguson has been selected to play ODI cricket and in the same format for Auckland, Ferguson has just eight games, 16 wickets, a healthy average of 28.12 and the not so healthy 6.19rpo.

I understand the selection of Ferguson and I love it as it's a reward for someone who is dominating the domestic scene, but he's coming in off of Plunket Shield cricket, has played more four-day cricket than 50-over cricket and has a better record in the long-form. So why wasn't he considered for these Test matches against Pakistan? I wouldn't be hanging my hat on Ferguson bowling 150km/h either as Australia's batsmen are fairly fond of fast bowlers. Any way, happy days for the lad and it'll be interesting to see how he goes.

A quiet note along similar lines; Martin Guptill got dropped from the Test team, hit two centuries and a half-century in three Plunket Shield innings' and will now feature in ODI cricket. Yeah yeah, Guppy wasn't so good at Test cricket and all of that, it's just weird.

What also catches the eye, is how the selectors are backing Watling and Tom Latham in ODI cricket. I like this and we often get caught up in the need to score quickly in 50-over cricket while neglecting to acknowledge the ability to bat 30 overs and accumulate. Watling, Latham and Kane Williamson contrast the hitting of de Grandhomme, Munro, Guptill and Jimmy Neesham very nicely, giving the Blackcaps the ability to maintain flexibility not only with their batting order but also with how the attack - or gather runs steadily - the Australian bowlers.

This is also a squad that allows Mike Hesson and Kaptain Kane the luxury of switching things up between games, ensuring that Australia have to conjour up plans to different players. My top team from this squad would be; Guptill, Latham, Williamson, Watling, Munro, de Grandhomme, Santner, Henry, Southee, Boult, Ferguson.

You can chuck Nicholls, Astle and Neesham into that team without losing a whole lot and it's simply a case of different strokes for different folks as to how you select a starting team; it's not so clear that this guy is better than that guy, more down to personal opinion.

The Blackcaps report of this news included a few players 'not considered due to injury' and it was a bit unnecessary, however it's a sign of the times as we could all ponder a Blackcaps ODI

2nd XI that could compete against a few ODI-playing nations.

Here's mine: George Worker, Hamish Rutherford, Jeet Raval, Ross Taylor, Will Young, Luke Ronchi, Corey Anderson, Scott Kuggeleijn, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Seth Rance.