KEY POINTS:
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
In the grand plan, New Zealand would head to South Africa and Australia, get some quality work behind them, and - if not win series in two of the most exacting cricket locations - at least be highly competitive and pick
up a handful of wins along the way.
Then they would ease their way past the lightweight battlers of Bangladesh to prime themselves for the big home campaign against England.
Well, best laid plans and all that. A couple of events in the last fortnight have conspired to invest the opening ODI against Bangladesh at Eden Park today with rather more interest than it might have had on a day usually given over to recovering from yesterday's excesses.
First off New Zealand were thumped in South Africa, but picked up one ODI win, performed significantly below par in Australia, convincingly beaten in Adelaide, and on the wrong end of a thorough beating at Hobart.
Then Bangladesh beat a New Zealand XI at Hamilton on Sunday night in a festival Twenty20 match to raise money for the Bangladesh Relief Fund to assist after last month's cyclone.
It was not the national team, but did contain five members of the 12 for the three-game series, including four of the first five in the batting order.
All but one has been an international at some point so they weren't slouches.
Bangladesh had a couple of useful bowlers, notably new ball man Shahadat Hossain, who got lift and movement in taking three for 15 in four overs. Their batsmen, chasing 133 for seven, included several dashers, who were unafraid to take on the bowling. Victory was secured with three overs to spare, a walloping in Twenty20 terms.
It was their first win over any New Zealand side. If the animated chatter on their team bus as it travelled from Hamilton to Auckland was any guide, this is a happy group, delighted at their early success in New Zealand.
"We understand it was Twenty20 and that pretty much brings most sides back to the field," new coach Jamie Siddons said.
"Having New Zealand not playing a full strength bowling attack gave us a big chance."
Victorian Siddons, who took over a few weeks ago after being Australian assistant coach, is under no illusions of what lies ahead. Bangladesh have recorded fine wins over most major nations, but not New Zealand, against whom their ODI record is 0 from 8.
He's asking small steps of his players, who have won only 36 of their 163 ODIs, and none of eight against New Zealand.
"Everything is new to them, bouncy wickets, fast bowlers, any wickets with any bounce of deviation is definitely different for them.
"Targets are kept as simple as we can. Play each ball on its merits, play each game trying to get better. They're full of enthusiasm and having a go. That's all I'm asking of them, put their best foot forward every day," Siddons said.
Bangladesh settled on their lineup yesterday. Their leading bowler, Mashrafe Mortaza, returns after missing the Hamilton game and 20 year-old left-hand opener Junaid Siddique makes his ODI debut. The batsmen need to turn snazzy, high-wire cameos of 25-30 into lengthier, productive innings at a reasonable pace.
Siddons, who reckons Bangladesh's best chance will be to find a greenish pitch and knock over the top of New Zealand's batting, insists they will need to "field the house down" and get a low target to chase.
South Africa and Australia didn't have much problem with that bowling strategy, but Bangladesh lack the pace, experience and class to do it that easily.
New Zealand, recent events notwithstanding, should be comfortably good enough in the three-game series. They will have noticed several Bangladesh batsmen don't fancy lively, bouncy fast bowling and Bangladesh's bowling appears short in depth.
Several New Zealand batsmen need strong, confidence-restoring innings and won't get a better chance than in the next week.
Captain Daniel Vettori recognises that a job needs to be done, and smartly, against the tourists.
"If we don't put performances on the board straight away I can understand how that pressure is going to mount," he said.
"We've got to make sure we're not nervous about these games, but also got to make sure we're pretty ruthless or they're going to have a real chance of beating us."
* NZ v BANGLADESH
Eden Park, 11.30am today
NEW ZEALAND
Daniel Vettori (c), Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Peter Fulton, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Mathew Sinclair, Kyle Mills, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin (one to be omitted).
BANGLADESH (FROM)
Mohammad Ashraful (c), Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Abdur Razzak, Farhad Reza, Mehrab Hossain, Mushrafe Mortaza, Junaid Siddique, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shahadat Hossain, Shakih Al Hasan.
