World Cup places are at stake: Stead
THERE is more than just a series victory at stake for the Black Caps ahead of the oneday series with Sri Lanka, as they return to shortform cricket with an eye on their ultimate 2019 goal.
Fresh from winning their fourth straight test series, the Black Caps will play Sri Lanka in three oneday internationals, starting in Mount Maunganui tomorrow. While they will be hot favourites to take a series win, the small matter of the World Cup is firmly on the mind of players and coaches alike.
This is the first of three oneday series the Black Caps will play before cricket’s main event rolls around in May, and head coach Gary Stead wants to use the matches to finetune both his squad and playing style for the tournament.
‘‘It’s really now [about] looking ahead to the World Cup, being clear on the game plans we want to use and making sure the roles we want to get people in — that we’re playing to those roles as well,’’ said Stead.
‘‘They’re about tweaking, looking at the style of play and how we want to play and looking at the options who fit those roles as well. It’s definitely a trial period still.’’
One of the major question marks surrounding the potential World Cup squad comes at the allrounder position. Colin de Grandhomme has been rested after a busy 12 months, Corey Anderson has been suffering from injury and illness, and Mitchell Santner is still making his return from injury with Northern Districts.
Santner should be in the mix to make his ODI return against India later this month.
Those absences have given the selectors a chance to evaluate Jimmy Neesham and Doug Bracewell, with the duo earning recalls after a year out of the national side.
Stead says they are just two of the players who can make their case for Cup selection with a strong series against Sri Lanka.
‘‘We’re still looking at some places within our team. We want to see more of the allrounders, we’re looking at Tim Seifert as a backup keeping option as well.
‘‘But the biggest thing for me is looking at the style of play, game plan, and looking ahead to the World Cup, where we know it’s likely to be 300plus scores. I want to make sure we get our heads around that as well.’’