Plunket Shield cricket is back and there is a wee bit of team selection funk to explore in the two games that started yesterday, while Otago Volts vs Auckland Aces sparks up today. Squads have been named for that and there's already a minor slice of funk as Will Somerville is straight back into the Aces squad as the main spinner, while Louis Delport misses out. Otago's squad is fairly settled.

Wellington are hosting Canterbury and the major funk here is Tom Blundell opening the batting for Wellington, as the wicket-keeper. Blundell had risen up the charts to be the Blackcaps Test opener, while batting in the middle order for Wellington and after sliding Devon Conway into a #3 spot last summer, the Firebirds have quietly unleashed a top-three of Rachin Ravindra, Blundell and Conway to start this summer.

Unfortunately for Blundell, he was caught off an awkward pull-shot for 2 off 10 balls. No dramas there and this isn't about what the joker have done, merely highlighting that one half of Aotearoa's Test opening combo is now opening for Wellington. The Firebirds also put Finn Allen right into their middle order and that's the next step in sussing the Wellington squad is seeing how Allen pans out in the coming weeks.

Canterbury's fairly stock-standard, no Henry Nicholls and that keeps openings available for interesting younger batsmen such as Ken McClure and Leo Carter.

In Hamilton, Northern Districts Knights are hosting Central Districts Stags and of course, with an abundance of Blackcaps battlers on deck, the attention is all on them. When I saw this scorecard though, Katene Clarke's name in the middle order caught my eye as he's playing his fourth First Class game and while he didn't pass 50 in his three games last summer, Clarke did score 10+ in the first five innings then 4* to finish the season.

Clarke is listed to bat #4 and there's a cheeky pivot in the Knights top-order as Jeet Raval's the rock at the top, alongside younger lads Henry Cooper, skipper Joe Carter and Clarke. Regular readers know that while Rachin Ravindra gets mentioned as the best batting prospect in Aotearoa, Cooper's casually averaging 39.11 in FC cricket after 25 games and his last two games of last summer served up two centuries.

For the Stags, Raymond Toole was named alongisde Doug Bracewell, Seth Rance and Blair Tickner in the seam department. Toole is a lefty seamer who averages 33.25 in FC cricket after four games, 82.50 in List-A cricket after six games and he must be eager to snap up game time with Ben Wheeler out, even Ajaz Patel's absence opens things up.

CD appear to have opted for the underground king Brad Schmulian to pick up Patel's spin overs. Remember that Schmulian is a nifty Plunket Shield leggy, averaging 28.66 to go with batting averages of 60.32 (FC) and 105.98 (LA). That could provide a leggy battle as Schmulian will hunt for overs among a impressive seam unit, same for ND's Ish Sodhi and this will be a mandatory check in over the next few days.

As for the spinners...

CD Stags - Brad Schmulian (leggy)/George Worker.

ND Knights - Ish Sodhi (leggy).

Wellington Firebirds - Michael Bracewell (offies)/Rachin Ravindra.

Canterbury - Theo van Woerkom (lefty offies).

Otago Volts (squad) - Michael Rippon (lefty leggies).

Auckland - Will Somerville (offies).

One more thing...

Keep an eye on Sean Solia and Mark Chapman for Auckland. Chapman finished 5th in Plunket Shield runs last summer and he was the only batsman to score 400+ runs from four games. Chapman still averages 41.20 in FC cricket and 51.08 in LA cricket, so that could be a diving board for a splash of funk over the next few weeks.

Solia is a bit behind Chapman as far as rising up to the Blackcaps goes and is coming off a summer in which he dabbled in more bowling than batting. Solia took 14w @ 24.28avg/3.83rpo and batted throughout the Aces line up, not quite scoring as many runs as he has done in the past and that had me a bit surprised to check his career averages; 30.71avg (FC), 39.06avg (LA). This is purely a domestic cricket nerd thing as it would be pretty cool for Solia to hit the all-round double-banger marker of averaging over 30 with the bat, below 30 with the ball.

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Peace and love.