When the Blackcaps selectors rolled out a Test team with Jeet Raval and Colin De Grandhomme in it - while Dean Brownlie carried drinks - I highlighted a trend at work as grizzly veterans of kiwi cricket were being selecting over promising youngsters. This came after Jeetan Patel was selected over Ish Sodhi and Luke Ronchi selected as a batsman over Henry Nicholls in India and this had me slightly confused, but glad that there was a clear plan in place.

This has only been amplified by the selection of Neil Broom in the Blackcaps ODI squad to face Bangladesh, as well as the re-call of Ronchi who replaces BJ Watling. I've come around to appreciating this clear plan, mainly because while I know that there is a large group of excessively talented young cricketers coming through who will take the Blackcaps forward, this wave of new faces are a probably a season or two away from really demanding selection.

Broom is an interesting case, especially in the context of the Blackcaps lacking any real selection direction in the past 12-24 months. With his selection came a sentence or two about Broom being the top run-scorer in Ford Trophy cricket and how he's super experienced, which doesn't do Broom any sort of justice. Broom has impressive numbers in First-Class cricket (averaging over 40 in six of the past eight seasons), but we're here because Broom has been selected in the ODI squad; in his past four List-A (one-day) seasons, Broom has averaged over 52 in three of them and in 2013/14 he only played one game ... so in his past three full seasons, Broom's averaged over 52.

Let's go back further; since the 2009/10 season, Broom's average has dipped below 44 just once (ignoring that 13/14 season).

Broom's coming off a County season with Derbyshire in England which saw him average 59 in one-day cricket, far better than his FC average of 25.23.

Which makes you wonder why Broom hasn't been used in ODI's since 2010 as his List-A averages in Aotearoa since his last ODI in March 2010 are reasonable; 44.25, 20.85, 52.50, 0, 54.16, 84.66.

That makes a very compelling case for Broom's inclusion, although it's a case of the stars aligning more than anything. Ross Taylor's still out injured which opens up that No.4 spot and the Blackcaps will look fairly strong against a touring Bangladesh side with Broom at No.4, Jimmy Neesham at No.5 and Colin Munro at No.6 for example.

As has been the case - putting this grizzly veteran trend in the spotlight - Broom has been preferred over a younger batsman in Henry Nicholls. While this got on my nerve in the past, now I view it as being fantastic because it's Nicholls' responsibility to get back into domestic cricket and stack up runs, fixing any minor flaws thathad hindered him in international cricket.
Nicholls has already started to do that in T20 cricket, hitting 39* off 27 balls for Canterbury against Auckland and then 66* off just 40 balls against Wellington.

The only other intriguing selection is that of Ronchi, who comes in for Watling, who came in for Ronchi. Aotearoa's wicket-keeping situation is incredibly funky at the moment because there's plenty of younger wicket-keepers scoring runs (get acquainted with these names; Tim Seifert, Glenn Phillips, Tom Blundell, Dane Cleaver, Cameron Fletcher), but as with the case with Nicholls, these young wicket-keepers need to stack up enough runs to demand selection over Ronchi.

Ronchi's at the top of this food-chain and this situation along with Broom's inclusion, are examples of why we should maintain some quiet optimism about the Blackcaps in all formats. In the past, this type of veteran would have been able to cruise without too much pressure on their Blackcaps spot. Now, these guys need to perform because there's pressure from that young wave and if the end result of that is veterans defending their place in the team via strong performances, then fantastic.