Black Caps start building for Cup

There’s more than just another series victory at stake for the Black Caps, as they return to short-form cricket with an eye on their ultimate goal for 2019.

Fresh off winning their fourth straight test series, the Black Caps take on Sri Lanka in three one-day internationals, starting in Mount Maunganui on Thursday. While they will be hot favourites to take a series win, there’s the small matter of the World Cup firmly on the mind of players and coaches alike.

This is the first of three one-day 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 fine-tune 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 all-rounder position. Colin de Grandhomme has been rested after a busy 12 months, Corey Anderson has been suffering from injury and illness, while Mitchell Santner is still making his return from injury with Northern Districts, and 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 both 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 all-rounders, we’re looking at Tim Seifert as a back-up 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 300-plus scores. I want to make sure we get our heads around that as well.”

Sri Lanka have brought in six new faces for the ODI series.

Veteran seamer Lasith Malinga will captain the side, with Kusal Perera, Asela Gunaratne, Seekkuge Prasanna, Thisara Perera and Dasun Shanaka all joining the squad.