Ain't nothing like an Aotearoa 'A' cricket squad right? Prior to the Blackcaps hitting up Pakistan for some cricket in United Arab Emirates, a squad of fringe Blackcaps and a few up and comers will play T20s, one-dayers and four-dayers against Pakistan A. There is a fair amount of crossover between the Blackcaps squads across the three formats and this A squad, so I'll suss that out first before exploring the genuine A type of players who have been named.

Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Jeet Raval, Ajaz Patel and Tom Blundell are in the Test squad and A squad. This means that the various A fixtures that they are involved in will be more warm up games than anything. Watling and Astle are also named in either the T20 or ODI squad, ODI squad in this case.

The fact that Watling is in the ODI squad is low key amazing, I'll go down that path when I write about the ODI squad itself.

Tim Seifert, Mark Chapman and Lockie Ferguson are also in the T20 squad.

The remaining A players, not named in any of the three Blackcaps squads are; Corey Anderson, Tom Bruce, Kyle Jamieson, Scott Kuggeleijn, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Blair Tickner, Logan van Beek, George Worker.

Two players will be added to the T20 and ODI squads, which will place a major emphasis on performance for these A players. One would have to assume that George Worker is a strong candidate to earn a call up in both formats and right now, I'd suggest that Anderson, Bruce, Glenn Phillips and Kuggeleijn are the likeliest players to also be in the mix. That's largely based on them being in and around previous Blackcaps squads and much of this depends on which players score runs/take wickets in the T20 or 50-over games.

With Jamieson, Tickner and van Beek earning A selection, we are given a glimpse at who is on the radar at the moment. Tickner and van Beek both had fantastic seasons last summer, while Jamieson has battled injury but proven to be hugely effective in domestic cricket when healthy. It's one thing to take wickets in Aotearoa and a whole new challenge to replicate that in the UAE though, so it'll be super interesting to see which seamer can have the most impact in foreign conditions - Kuggeleijn included.

Will Young earns selection as one of, if not the premier young batting prospect in Aotearoa. Young has captained Central Districts Stags for a couple seasons now and worked through a lean patch of form last summer to get back a pile of runs. I've had Young penciled in to replace Ross Taylor at #4 when Taylor decides to retire and Young should be a consistent presence in the plethora of A squads we will apparently get. 

Like with the seamers, giving Young experience in adverse conditions is going to be a huge factor in preparing him for international cricket. The likes of Bruce and Seifert will also benefit greatly, both of whom have enough domestic runs behind them to warrant a closer inspection across all formats and consistent A selections to best prepare them.

There are two very funk selections, at opposite ends of the spectrum. Rachin Ravindra is an obvious one as he is yet to play domestic cricket, but has been identified as an opening batsman with the talent to crack it. I love this as instead of fiddling with other batsmen and trying to get them to open, a specialist has been identified and will now be given every opportunity to develop. This is exactly the level of planning that has been absent from the wider Blackcaps group for a number of years.

The other is Corey Anderson, who is vastly experienced compared to Ravindra. Anderson is also vastly experienced in injury rehab and is arguably the most injury-prone cricketer in the wider Blackcaps group. This is another case of easing Anderson back into international cricket after Anderson made a few appearances for Northern Districts Knights last summer.

This time around though, a lot depends of Anderson's performances as there isn't a whole lot of room in any of the Blackcaps squads to fast-track Anderson back in, without Anderson demanding selection. Throughout Anderson's injury woes, kiwi cricket's depth has continued to increase and we only need to look at the Blackcaps now, sans Anderson and Jimmy Neesham to be reminded how much has changed.

Everything about the announcement for this UAE tour centred around Ajaz Patel's call up to the Test squad. Dig a little deeper into the A squad and the selection of Ravindra might have caught your eye, or even the emergence of a fresh wave of seamers in Jamieson, Tickner and van Beek. Anderson's name sits at the top of the squad list though and despite there always being plenty of intrigue in various individual performances from an A team, whether Anderson announces his return with commanding performances or is over-shadowed by others will be of the greatest intrigue for ya boy.

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Peace and love 27.