ODI time for Aotearoa's Blackcaps as we slide on into the next stage of their tour of United Arab Emirates, into a format that means a whole lot more right now with the World Cup looming than the 20-over stuff. Heading into the T20 series, Glenn Phillips and Corey Anderson were added to the Blackcaps squad with Ajaz Patel also getting the promotion, all three moving up from the Aotearoa 'A' team and coach Gary Stead has now opted to add Lockie Ferguson and George Worker into the ODI group.

Patel will offer cover for Todd Astle who his nursing a niggly injury and I'd have to admit that at the moment, it would simply be a whole lot more intriguing if Patel did get some ODI game time ahead of Astle. That's not because of any negative vibes towards Astle, I'd just love to see the stars align for Patel and for him to get a taste of ODI cricket, against quality opposition overseas. Then again, Astle has played all six of his ODI games in Aotearoa and as always, we know very little about a kiwi cricketer until they play multiple games in foreign conditions; I'd low key like to see Astle play in UAE as well.

The decision to include Ferguson is a wee bit weird, considering that fellow speedster Adam Milne was the best Blackcaps bowler from the T20 series. Milne took 4 wickets in 6.4 overs @ 13.25avg/7.95rpo and along with Colin de Grandhomme, they were the only kiwi bowlers (of 8 bowlers used) to take more than 1w. Not only was Milne the pick of the kiwi bowlers, this wasn't even close to being a contest.

In meditating on this move from coach Stead, one can only assume that Milne is being nursed on his comeback trail from injury ... although he's always on the comeback trail from injury. Of Milne's last 10 games, all but one Plunket Shield game were T20s as he got through six T20 games for Kent, a T20 game vs UAE and then two T20I's vs Pakistan. In that Plunket Shield game, Milne bowled 11 and 15 overs, which doesn't suggest any type of cap on his workload.

Milne is the lad in form, although Ferguson has a very different tinge to his last 10 games. Only three of those 10 games were T20s - one for Derbyshire, one for NZ A and a T20I vs Pakistan - while five of those games were First Class County Championship games for Derbyshire, with two one-dayers for NZ A. Boil that down to; Milne's been on the T20 diet and Ferguson's been toiling away in all formats.

With that in mind, this makes move from Stead makes some sense. For a bowler of Ferguson's style, to churn out the number of overs he has recent is bloody impressive and he's effective at the same time. Those five County games Ferguson played most recently saw him take a wicket in 9 of the 10inns, taking 2+ wickets in 5inns and Ferguson then took 4w and 1w in two 50-over games vs Pakistan A.

I reckon Stead views Ferguson as being more robust at this point, while Milne still has to build into his longer-format work. This gets funky when we consider that I recently pointed out how Stead had gone with Patel over Astle for the T20I series, despite Astle being perhaps more useful with his all-round abilities. Granted, Astle may had been out of action via that knee injury but he wasn't initially named in the T20 squad either and I viewed this as a low key point of difference between Stead and the previous regime.

The previous regime loved Astle, while Stead is instead giving Patel the opportunities. The previous regime also loved Milne and ushered him into the ODI team for the Champions Trophy squad last year, despite Milne not playing an ODI for a year prior to Champions Trophy. I definitely won't go all in on suggesting that Stead prefers Patel over Astle and Ferguson over Milne as I have highlighted in both instances the variables at play, yet these are low key narratives to keep an eye on as Stead gets his filthy mits on this Blackcaps squad.

Then we have everyone's favourite fringe Blackcap, George Worker who has three 50+ scores in just 7inns at the ODI level, averages 42.49 in List-A cricket and has never been given a decent sniff at Blackcaps ODI cricket. Worker didn't do much in the 50-over portion of the A series though, with scores of 12, 15 and 8 - not exactly demanding selection.

However, this feels like a case of seeing what Worker can do. The stars have aligned for Worker here as Martin Guptill had to drop out of the tour via injury and the only other certified opening contender Glenn Phillips just happened to put up three ducks in that that 50-over A series, before then scoring 43 runs in 3inns @ 84.31sr in the Blackcaps T20I series.

Phillips did little to make this a genuinely difficult decision for Stead and I think I speak for most kiwi cricket fans when I say that I simply want to see Worker given multiple games as an ODI opener. Worker can bowl, however he hasn't bowled in a game at all in the UAE thus far and to be honest, this doesn't really matter; this is all about Worker showing what he can do with the bat as an opener.

There are other tweaks to the team that would keep Worker on the sidelines, perhaps Henry Nicholls or Tom Latham moving up to open and we can't forget that BJ Watling is also in the squad. That feels silly though and defeats the purpose of including Worker in the squad. With that in mind, here is my Blackcaps ODI 1st 11 from the squad selected...

George Worker, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Colin de Grandhomme, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Trent Boult.

I'd throw a curveball at Pakistan and roll with the seamers to start with, just to see what's up and the experience in that seam group can offer plenty of variations. The logical move is to replace Henry or Southee with another spinner, given the conditions but that feels as though it will be exactly what Pakistan want. That 1st 11 I named, leaves Watling, Ferguson and Astle/Patel on the outer, any of whom can very easily slot in to the team in various roles.

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Peace and love 27.