2025 ODI Women's World Cup: New Zealand Squad Breakdown
Praise the lands of Aotearoa because the White Ferns squad for the 2025 ODI World Cup is a fair reflection of New Zealand's best cricketers. The World Cup campaign starts on October 1st and there will be a tournament preview cooked up before then, but the combination of selections and preparation offers a far more positive tinge to the pre-tournament period than the previous ODI World Cup that Aotearoa co-hosted.
The majority of the White Ferns squad picks itself. Amelia Kerr is the best women's cricketer from Aotearoa right now but she is behind older sister Jess for the most ODI wickets since the start of 2024 for New Zealand. The development of Jess as a genuine all-rounder over the past year ensured that both Kerr sisters were locked in for this World Cup.
Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Maddy Green are certain selections. Lea Tahuhu was always likely to be selected as the leader of the bowling unit but she has only played four ODIs since the start of 2024 and missed chunks of last summer due to injury, so her selection depended on her availability.
Brooke Halliday and Izzy Gaze join Bates and Green as the only White Ferns who have played 14 ODIs since the start of 2024. Halliday is second behind Green for runs in this period so she has been on track for World Cup selection. Despite the emergence of Polly Inglis as a White Ferns wicket-keeper, Gaze has been a consistent presence in the ODI team and the combination of teams usually having two wicket-keepers for major tournaments, as well as the possibility that Gaze and Inglis play in the same team, ensured that both got the nod.
Georgia Plimmer has played 12 ODIs since the start of 2024 and after her impressive mahi in the T20 World Cup championship last year, she battled injury to miss most of the kiwi summer. Plimmer returned to finish the season though and had her best season of one-day batting, then she made the start of 2025 her best year of ODI/T20I batting as well as hitting a century and 51* in her six games for NZ-A during the winter.
Bella James could be a 1st 11 batter but she will probably start the tournament outside the 1st 11 and her versatiltiy, along with the abundance of options offered by all-rounders, means she can play a role in covering all batting positions. James has only played three games for White Ferns but she has already flashed her attacking strokes vs Australia and has been one of the best batters across domestic cricket, North vs South and NZ-A.
Lauren Down was an option but she scored 44 runs @ 7.3avg in her seven ODI innings since the start of 2024 and dipped out of the mix. Emma McLeod and Izzy Sharp are other batting options but they hadn't done enough in limited opportunities for White Ferns and the tier below to suggest that they should overtake James.
Eden Carson entered international cricket as an excellent T20I spinner and has grown into her ODI role for White Ferns. Carson is the second best Aotearoa spinner behind A-Kerr and despite Fran Jonas having a regular role for White Ferns in the last few years, Flora Devonshire is just as good, if not better at spin bowling than fellow lefty Jonas.
The funkiest wrinkle here though is the all-round talent of Devonshire and how that fits into the squad's requirements, especially for a tournament. Devonshire has the same lefty spin skillset as Jonas and is a far better batter, which gives White Ferns another lefty batter in their squad alongside Halliday.
Devonshire is similar to James as they share the ability to play attacking strokes in all directions, plus they have the confidence to score quickly. Devonshire is a better fielder than Jonas as well and while she isn't on the same tier as players like Green and Carson, having Devonshire in the squad ahead of Jonas means there isn't a weak link in the White Ferns fielding department.
White Ferns should be one of the best fielding teams at the tournament and that could be factor in winning games. Devonshire hasn't played an ODI yet so it seems like a crazy selection decision but Jonas hasn't taken her opportunities in ODI cricket with 42.5avg/4.6rpo in 26 games and Devonshire is a better cricketer, so it's the type of sensible selection that is kinda fresh for White Ferns.
There is a similar yarn for the seamers with Bree Illing and Rosemary Mair selected ahead of Molly Penfold and Hannah Rowe. Rowe has a better case for selection than Penfold but she has a slower swing style of bowling that could limit her effectiveness in India/Sri Lanka and she hasn't tapped into her batting potential for White Ferns yet so her case as an all-rounder isn't very strong.
Penfold still hasn't found a groove with consistent wickets at the international or domestic level and has been overtaken by Illing as the best seamer at Auckland in recent summers. Averaging 49 in ODI bowling (13 innings) and 47 since the start of 2024, Penfold also has a streak of six games without a wicket and has 4 wickets in her last 10 games.
Illing is a lefty who is in the same speed/bounce zone as Penfold and Mair. While she is a useful swing bowler, Illing can hit the deck and bowl yorkers, which has seen her snare lots of wickets ahead of this World Cup. Suddenly White Ferns have two lefty batters, a lefty spinner and a lefty seamer in their squad after years of no lefties.
Mair has a higher ODI bowling average than Penfold (57) and she has played two ODIs since the start of 2023, none of which suggests she should be selected ahead of Penfold. Both those ODIs were played last year and Mair took 4w @ 28.5avg, which is part of three consecutive ODIs with a wicket and this is the only pocket of her career in which Mair has at least a wicket in three consecutive ODIs.
White Ferns selectors clearly wanted Mair in the squad ahead of Penfold and this falls into the bucket of personal preference rather than clear evidence of Mair being better in ODIs. Penfold has benefited from these kind of selection decisions previously and along with Jonas, they were promoted to White Ferns without dominating domestic cricket.
This seems to have flipped in favour of players who have earned selection for White Ferns. It's less obvious for Mair but even she has had two of her best seasons in both formats in the last two summers. Others like Plimmer, Gaze, James, Illing and Devonshire have shown development at all levels and earned World Cup selection through runs and wickets.
White Ferns went through a phase of adversity in which younger players were selected without foundations of confidence at the levels below international cricket. Some have kicked on like Plimmer and Gaze, others like Jonas and Penfold have been overtaken by new players who have gathered confidence before stepping up to White Ferns.
Now kiwi cricket fans have reason to be confident in the White Ferns because this squad is a legit representation of Aotearoa's best cricketers. No one outside of Aotearoa will expect White Ferns success at this World Cup as the cricket cartel (Australia, India, England) love themselves too much for that, yet White Ferns are T20 World Cup champions and now have an exciting squad for the ODI equivalent.
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Peace and love.