A day after the West Indies had been beaten - just - in the final ODI at Napier, thoughts began turning towards the next assignment for New Zealand.

They head to Australia for the Chappell Hadlee series this month, with the opening ODI in Perth on February 1. The New Zealand top brass had talked of the need to win the West Indies series to ensure they took some momentum with them into the Australian series.

So job done on that front, although had the West Indies won the rain-affected Duckworth Lewis finale in Napier, New Zealand would have compartmentalised that series.

The line of thinking would have been that they are about to play in different conditions against vastly superior opposition, who possess reasonable to formidable strength in most departments, as opposed to the Windies and their reliance on a small group of players to do the job.

Over the next few days, the national selectors will digest numbers, take in two more rounds of State Shield cricket and make their plans. All contenders are expected to be playing State cricket, the recovering allrounder Jacob Oram and leading new ball bowler Kyle Mills possible exceptions.

Don't expect any surprises when the squad, tipped to be 13, is named next week. Keeping players active in Twenty20 cricket back home rather than sitting in the stands in Australia is deemed more beneficial.

Broadly speaking, the selectors, Glenn Turner, John Wright and Dion Nash, will have three areas in mind, where New Zealand's present situations vary.

1: The top four

The successful launching of Martin Guptill's international career was a boon to New Zealand.

His 122 not out in the fourth ODI at Eden Park, and the way he handled the circumstances of his promotion from No 3 to opening - thanks to Jesse Ryder's ban for another drunken escapade - bode well and suggest a strong, committed mind in the 22-year-old Aucklander.

He replaced Jamie How, who struggled to buy a run at times during the West Indies series.

A top four of Brendon McCullum, Ryder, Guptill and Ross Taylor is brimful of rich strokeplay, and the ability to get runs fast against the new ball.

This presupposes that the selectors will stick with vice-captain and wicketkeeper McCullum at the start of the innings. They will in Australia, although Guptill's arrival offers a genuine opening alternative without having to go looking for a makeshift option if things go awry.