So the Blackcaps are gearing up for the Champions Trophy, well, sort of. Most of them are fluffin' about in India and as y'all would have read, only Jeetan Patel is actually preparing for Champions Trophy cricket with one-day cricket, in English conditions. Regardless, there's a Blackcaps CT squad and now we officially have a Niche Cache anti-Champions Trophy squad made up of geezers who weren't named in the Blackcaps squad.

Consider it a bit of a 'B' squad if you will. I've still selected guys who are in the squad for the tri-series featuring Bangladesh and Ireland, meaning that some blokes in this anti-CT squad will be lingering around England as cover for the Blackcaps. All parties involved know where priorities sit however and much more fun/development will go down in the anti-CT squad; it's where all the cool cats will be.

George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Tom Bruce, Colin Munro, Scott Kuggeleijn, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Neil Wagner, Lockie Ferguson.

Opening the batting we have George Worker and Glenn Phillips. Worker easily slides into the top-three (along with Colin Munro and Neil Wagner) of players who are most regularly mentioned by the public as deserving a consistent ODI spot, but not getting one. With strong stroke-play and a cheeky bit of spin, Worker will be asked to play his natural game but also work in conjunction with Phillips who will go bonkers each and every game. There's a left/right-hand combo here and Worker's experience is nicely suited to adjusting to the situation, adjusting to what happens with Phillips; whether he's on fire, gets out or battles through a tough patch.

Phillips is our wicket-keeper and this is merely personal preference - the whole squad is personal preference. He may not be the best batsman out of the w-k/batsmen in Aotearoa, nor may he be the best w-k, but having his aggressive style at the top of the order and that he can w-k offers great balance to this team.

At No.3 we have Will Young, followed by Henry Nicholls, Tom Bruce then Colin Munro. Some believe the left/right-hand combo is over-rated and throughout the middle order this is merely a coincidence, although I like it a lot. Young has the technique to deal with the new-ball and along with Nicholls, he can fight off quality bowling while ticking the scoreboard over, then pouncing on bad deliveries and even manufacturing a few boundaries.

Of our top-four batsmen, Worker, Young and Nicholls finished 1st, 3rd and 4th in Ford Trophy runs this season. They all hit at least one century/three half-centuries and they all had strike-rates over 90; you wouldn't associate Young and Nicholls as being blasters but they are definitely more than capable of continuing a hot start. Or more importantly they can re-assess how the innings is going.

Brucey-Bruce comes in at No.5 and as much as Lesson like to talk about 'power' in the Blackcaps batting line up, Bruce followed by Munro is pretty damn powerful. I've slid Munro down to No.6 to simplify his role, while Munro's domestic numbers are crazy and people shout from various rooftops for a consistent Blackcaps spot, Munro has been found wanting when asked to build an innings against quality bowling. With Bruce at No.5 and Munro at No.6, Munro will be free to smack it around, ideally with Bruce at the other end, feeding Munro the strike and dispatching loose deliveries himself.

Ideally, Bruce and Munro finish off the innings. Scott Kuggeleijn is a capable batsman, like really super-duper low key capable batsman, who averaged 34.57 in this summer's FT with a strike-rate of 106.14. There's absolutely no concerns about Kuggeleijn bowling 10 overs and his hostile, heavy-ball bowling will touch a few batsmen up and while he'll be asked to score some runs at some stage, these should be viewed as 'bonus runs'.

The Blackcaps have a defensive mindset when it comes to their spinners, but we attack like a mofo. Ish Sodhi will be our No.1 spinner and after taking 14 FT wickets @ 19.42avg, he won't be tasked with tightening the screws, his main objective will be to send batsmen back to the changing rooms. With a sense of freedom, Sodhi will have confidence to dive into his bag of tricks without worrying about what the coaching staff are going to think when he concedes a boundary or two; which happens with attacking spinners. Gimme those wickets though and spin the ball both ways.

Our seam attack consists of Kuggeleijn, Lockie Ferguson, Neil Wagner and Matt Henry. Henry is our best ODI bowler, averaging 25.10 in ODI cricket and for whatever reason he's not in the CT squad which is borderline mind-boggling. For obvious reasons, Henry is in our squad, but don't sleep on Henry's batting and he'll come in after Kuggeleijn where he'll swing his blade with an ODI average of 20.62 and strike-rate of 104.43.

This important for Ferguson but also applies to Sodhi; they'll bowl 10 overs barring emergency. For the Blackcaps these two aren't given any confidence as they don't know how they'll be used in a game, let alone from game to game and I'll offer clarity to how they'll be used. I don't like the 'need for speed' so there won't be pressure on Ferguson to steam in and bowl fast, I just want Ferguson to attack the stumps. Nothing more, nothing less, just consistently attack the stumps and allow the likes of Henry and Wagner to switch things up.

It's a pleasure to include Wagner in this team, celebrating his one-day work which is excessively slept on. Wagner's List-A average (26.19) is better than his First-Class average (26.86) and he provides a few options in that he can swing the ball both ways when he's on fire, then he can resort to his short-pitch stuff when required. Wagner and Henry will be used at the death, both will focus on super-simple plans that centre around the yorker with sporadic short-balls and slower-balls thrown in.

Simple Plan were a horrible band, but here's a simple plan for this team with bat and ball...

Bat: Catch the vibe at the top, Phillips plays with great freedom. Reach 30 overs with as many wickets in the shed as possible. Ideally two of Young, Nicholls and Bruce are at the crease, from which we go bang.

Ball: Henry and Ferguson to open, Wagner, Kuggeleijn, Sodhi and Ferguson to roll through middle overs. Wagner and Henry to bowl death. Worker to chime in when required.

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