Having seen far more of Aotearoa's White Ferns playing cricket outside of the White Ferns set up in the past few months, the upcoming series vs England sparks up an almighty Women's World Cup preparation phase. There are plenty of good vibes around women's cricket in Aotearoa and hosting the World Cup early next year will take this to a nek level, although keeping it a full steak and cheese does mean that the White Ferns ODI group will need to start winning ODI games.

Going back to the start of 2019, Aotearoa hosted India in a three game series and lost the first two games before winning the third. Then, Aotearoa ventured across the ditch to face Australia in February 2019 and lost all three of those games. Here's the head-scratcher: in 2020 Aotearoa played six ODI games and lost all six.

First came three losses in Aotearoa against South Africa, then in another Rose Bowl encounter the kiwis were again swept 0-3 by Australia. Slide back further to 2018 and Aotearoa went down 1-2 against England in England and again, lost the first two games before grabbing the dead-rubber win. The only ODI series wins for the White Ferns since the start of 2018 have been in Aotearoa vs West Indies and away to Ireland.

2018: 9 games, 6 wins, 3 losses.

2019: 6 games, 1 win, 5 losses.

2020: 6 games, 6 losses.

That is a rather hefty issue.

During this time, three different captains have been used. Suzie Bates finished her captaincy stint in 2018, then Amy Satterthwaite stepped in and Sophie Devine started her captaincy in 2020. Three years, 21 games, 7 wins, 14 losses and three different captains. Meanwhile, all we have heard about the White Ferns has been rather positive and there hasn't been too much fuss about a team that was genuinely right there with the big-three nations of women's cricket and was then swept by South Africa on home soil.

With that in mind, Aotearoa has to move onwards and upwards swiftly if they merely want to crack the semi-finals of the Aotearoa World Cup. Had the World Cup been played right now as it was initially scheduled, Aotearoa would have entered the World Cup with six consecutive ODI losses.

Now, the White Ferns host England and trying to make sense of the squad selected has been tricky. It appears as though the net has been cast wide to usher in new players such as Fran Jonas and Brooke Halliday, which when presented as a struggling team trying to find fresh juice ahead of a major tournament, seems logical. Although I'm not sure if this was the direct intention.

For example, Kate Ebrahim is one of the best batswomen in Aotearoa. Ebrahim was immense in Canterbury Magicians winning the Super Smash and finished the T20 competition with 292 runs @ 73avg/101.38sr. Ebrahim was selected in the White Ferns T20I squad (which will be sussed ahead of the Aotearoa vs England T20I series) and Ebrahim is also 1st in Hallyburton-Johnston Shield runs with 328 runs @ 65.60avg/80.58sr. Ebrahim's the only player in the Aotearoa 50-over competition with 300+ runs and while she missed last summer with mum-mahi, Ebrahim finished 2nd in HBJ Shield runs back in 2018/19 with 517 runs @ 86.16avg/75.25sr.

Ebrahim, Natalie Dodd and Frances Mackay have been in the top-five run-scorers for HBJ Shield cricket in each of the last three seasons with Ebrahim absent for her season off. Dodd and Mackay are in the White Ferns ODI squad, Ebrahim is not. With no Ebrahim, Katie Perkins, Leigh Kasperek or Suzie Bates, the squad gets injected with young talent in the form of Brooke Halliday and Fran Jonas.

Halliday looked fantastic in the tour games against England, smacking 79 off 56 balls in the second game including 3 sixes. I don't invest too much in tour games, as there are many domestic cricketers around Aotearoa who perform well against touring teams who are warming up for international series; England gave some of their batters two opportunities in the same game.

Halliday does have street-cred to work with though as she is 2nd behind Ebrahim in HBJ Shield runs and is the only player not named Ebrahim, Dodd or Mackay at the top of the HBJ Shield run-scoring charts. Having made her List-A debut in 2012/13, 25-year-old Halliday scored her first century and second half-century this summer. Halliday is also a nifty bowler, sitting 1 wicket behind Jonas with 9w @ 16.87avg/3.34rpo in HBJ Shield.

Jonas has clearly been identified as someone to fast-track into the White Ferns. In the HBJ Shield, Jonas has taken 9w @ 16avg/3.89rpo and while it's easy to see why Jonas is being slid into White Fern cricket asap, this makes it seem like Jonas is the only teenage spin sensation in Aotearoa. 14-year-old Wellingtonian Kate Chandler also has 9w @ 14.22avg/4.89rpo and while not all teenagers, Canterbury's Sarah Asmussen, Wellington's Xara Jetly, Central Districts’ Georgia Atkinson and the Otago duo of Eden Carson and Sophie Oldershaw are all notable young spinners on the domestic circuit.

Jonas is a talented young spinner. This is literally the strongest aspect of Aotearoa women's cricket though and I still have Amelia Kerr, Leigh Kasperek, Anna Peterson, Frances Mackay and Amy Satterthwaite as the best spinners on offer to the White Ferns. The most fun thing about Aotearoa women's cricket? The spinners.

Best White Fern performers vs South Africa last year?

Suzie Bates was 2nd overall with 142 runs @ 47.33avg/73.95sr. Then Katie Perkins was next best, although Perkins and her HBJ Shield 50.66avg this summer wasn't good enough for ODI selection.

Jess Kerr was the best bowler, with 2w @ 20avg/5.71rpo. Five bowlers took 3+ wickets, all were South Africans.

Best White Fern performers vs Australia last year?

Amy Satterthwaite led the kiwi batswomen with 111 runs @ 37avg/85.38rpo. Sophie Devine, Maddy Green and Natalie Dodd were next in line, although Satterthwaite was the only kiwi to score 100+ runs.

Amelia Kerr led the bowlers with 6w @ 22.66avg/5.23rpo. No other White Ferns bowler took more than 2w.

In the wider context, I've got the following players as being certified ODI White Fern troopers and world-class cricketers:

Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Lea Tahuhu, Amy Satterthwaite, Amelia Kerr, Leigh Kasperek, Katey Martin.

The next tier below features players who are best equipped to plug the gaps, although they need to maintain runs/wickets in competing for selection:

Katie Perkins, Kate Ebrahim, Frances Mackay, Natalie Dodd, Hayley Jensen, Jess Watkin, Anna Peterson, Lauren Down, Holly Huddleston, Hannah Rowe, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair.

That's 18 players, before even entering the crop of talented youngsters on the rise.

Trying to figure out this White Ferns ODI business is niggly. The White Ferns have struggled in ODI cricket, dipping out of the best teams in the world and most of the players listed above were involved in the recent rough patch. Injecting the best young players into the White Ferns may help flip this form around and yet, it's hard to argue that the youngsters are better than those players listed above.

This series against England won't give us the answers. It is the start of a crucial year for White Ferns ODI business as Australia will follow England in touring Aotearoa - both teams will play three ODI games against Aotearoa. These next few weeks will help sort through the murky waters of the ODI talent pool and we'll either have a couple youngsters make compelling cases for further selection, or the experienced crop will be desperate to drag the White Ferns out of this ODI slump.

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Peace and love.