Cricket: 'Chuffed' Young gets his callup

Reece Young. Photo / NZPA.

Reece Young had an inkling he was not far off the national selector's radar a year ago.

He was the surprise pick for the tour to Sri Lanka 15 months ago as backup wicketkeeper to Brendon McCullum. His only action was filling in for McCullum in Sri Lanka's second innings of the second test.

Yesterday the wicketkeeper-batsman got the best news of his career when he was named in the test squad for the two-game series against Pakistan early next month. "Absolutely chuffed," he said yesterday after getting a call from selection convener Mark Greatbatch.

And he's no support act this time - Young will make his test debut at Hamilton on January 7.

The other interesting move in the test 13 is the inclusion of Wellington allrounder James Franklin - unwanted in tests since India's visit last season, and in favour after a couple of strong ODI performances in that country a few weeks ago.

By a strange twist, Young, who turned 31 in September, replaces his old Auckland teammate, Gareth Hopkins, who has suffered for ordinary form on the tour of India.

Last season the two shared keeping duties in a worthy but essentially unsatisfactory arrangement to keep both in work with an eye on possible national selection.

In the winter, Young decided to shift south and reckons his time with Canterbury had brought rich reward.

"Making it known I was moving and was prepared to go out of my way to make sure I gave myself every opportunity to be selected was probably a factor," he said yesterday.

The on-off situation with the keeping job in Auckland meant when he was not wearing the big gloves "it gave me a responsibility with the bat which I thrived on".

"But playing for Canterbury and the opportunity to keep fulltime has paid dividends.

"As a keeper, it's like a bowler. You get into a rhythm, then having a couple of games off and all of a sudden you have to start again.

"I feel my keeping has improved from last year and feel I'm hitting the ball well too."

Young is an 11-year veteran of the first-class game. He's played 99 games, scored 3303 runs at 29.75 with five hundreds and 20 fifties.

He is likely to bat at No 7 or 8, either side of captain Dan Vettori.

Young quips that he's "a pretty young 31-year-old". That longevity means he's had to cope with ups and downs of form and "hopefully that will hold me in good stead to try and kick on at that top level".

But Young is realistic in one sense.

"At this age I'll probably only get one crack at it, so I've got to take every opportunity."

The selectors have otherwise stuck with those who toured India.

In the wake of the 5-0 ODI shambles, one thing largely forgotten is that New Zealand competed pretty well in the drawn first two tests, before being overrun at Nagpur in the decider.

One of the four fast-medium bowlers, Chris Martin, Brent Arnel, Tim Southee or Andy McKay will miss out, with Franklin the other most likely candidate to carry the drinks.

Regular test squad pick Jeetan Patel has been overlooked and that points towards making more use of Kane Williamson's offspin as the backup to Vettori.

"It would be good to develop the likes of a Williamson to get more out of his bowling and that would help the balance a lot," selection panel spokesman Glenn Turner said last night.

"And Jeetan needs to get some form back."

The other absentee from the Indian test squad is Northern Districts' BJ Watling, who played the first test before losing out to Martin Guptill.

Watling is, however, among the preliminary World Cup squad of 30 - almost half the number of first-class players in New Zealand - named yesterday,

That group includes seven uncapped players - Young, bowlers Brent Arnel, Adam Milne, allrounders Rob Nicol, Luke Woodcock and Doug Bracewell, and batsman Dean Brownlie.

The squad is boiled down to 15 on January 19 for the trip to the subcontinent for the tournament starting on February 19.

"A number of uncapped guys who have excelled domestically made the squad," selection convener Mark Greatbatch said.

"We believe it represents the best one-day cricketers we have in New Zealand.

"There is genuine competition for places as we look to select the final 15 for the World Cup and that's exciting."

* Three of that squad, Martin Guptill, Kyle Mills and Daryl Tuffey are in Auckland's squad to play Pakistan in their tour opener at Colin Maiden Park today.

The game is Pakistan's only warmup to their three-game T20 series, starting at Eden Park on Boxing Day.

Pakistan had a solid workout on a humid morning yesterday and their choice for today is simple: they either play their likely XI for Boxing Day to give them a shakedown, or start those unlikely to figure in the internationals.

The game begins at 2pm.