Cricket: Black Caps unchanged for T20 series

Jesse Ryder. Photo / Getty Images

The Black Caps have named an unchanged squad for the Twenty20 Series against the West Indies starting on Saturday in Auckland.

Of the 14 players in the current One Day International squad, Kane Williamson and Kyle Mills return to play HRV Cup matches.

New Zealand Cricket General Manager National Selection Bruce Edgar said the selectors wanted to take a consistent approach to the limited overs squads.

"We are keen to keep this group together but are mindful of the strong performances from a number of other players including Hamish Rutherford, and Anton Devcich.

"We are fortunate to be in a position to have a range of quality players to choose from."

The West Indies are current Twenty20 World Cup champions and have played the Black Caps on six occasions in the shortest form of the game - three of which ended in tied games.

Dwayne Bravo will lead a 15-man West Indies squad.

Six players will have been in New Zealand for the entire tour, including the test and ODI legs - batsman Kieran Powell, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, allrounder Narsingh Deonarine, Chadwick Walton and bowlers Tino Best and Sunil Narine.

The inclusion of Trinidad legspinner Samuel Badree, who has taken 12 wickets at 19 apiece in his 10 T20s, lifts to four the number of spinners in the squad, along with Narine, Nikita Miller and Deonarine. The T20s are at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday and in Wellington next Wednesday.

Neither Chris Gayle nor Kieron Pollard was considered for selection due to injury, while test and regular T20 skipper Darren Sammy was ruled out by a hamstring injury.

New Zealand T20 squad: Brendon McCullum (c), Corey Anderson, Martin Guptill, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.

West Indies T20 squad: Dwayne Bravo (c), Kieran Powell, Johnson Charles, Lendl Simmons, Andre Fletcher, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin, Chadwick Walton, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Tino Best, Jason Holder, Nikita Miller, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul.