Cricket: Tough choices for selectors

Kane Williamson is a certainty to make the Black Caps 15. It's going to be a tougher call on many others. Photo / Yasir Nisar

As many New Zealanders turn their attention to barbecues, beverages and beaches, the national cricket selectors face the unenviable task of preparing Dear John letters for World Cup hopefuls.

Mike Hesson and Bruce Edgar must reveal their 15-man squad by January 7. Competition for places, following the 3-2 one-day international series win over Pakistan, is intense.

Decisions over which of the six pace bowling candidates misses out, how many allrounders to take, who should back up with the wicketkeeping gloves and who should open the batting all remain pertinent.

The Pakistan series put the squad members under a pressure comparative to tournament play. It was also their fourth series triumph in the past two years after defeating South Africa, England and India.

"We're well advanced in our thinking after those five matches," Hesson said. "There have been lots of pressure points throughout the series where we saw how our guys responded.

"It gave us a heap of information. Some guys stood up and said, 'you have to pick me'. Others said, 'you have to consider me'."

Six pace bowling contenders are likely to be pared to five, limiting BJ Watling's chances of selection as a specialist back-up wicketkeeper. Alternatively, the form of allrounder Jimmy Neesham could come in for scrutiny.

A man-of-the-match bowling display by Matt Henry in yesterday's 68-run win in the final ODI pushed his case. Before the series, he was the easiest candidate to shelve on the basis of inexperience.

His 5 for 30 from nine overs at Abu Dhabi meant he took 13 wickets at an average of 16.30 and economy rate of 5.57. It was his third haul of four wickets or better in six ODIs.

"It'll be a difficult call regardless," Hesson said. "But there's a high attrition rate with fast bowlers so all six could play a part at some stage.

"[To say the allrounders' form was] a mixed bag is fair. There's no doubt both [Neesham and Corey Anderson] were targeted as bowlers by Pakistan. They put them under pressure but our guys got better throughout the series. Jimmy didn't get the volume of runs he would have liked but he's been asked to do a couple of different jobs this summer. Corey showed glimpses of taking their attack apart but didn't quite finish the job. He was gaining confidence when he suffered his [groin] injury.

"BJ is definitely our No 2 [ODI keeper]. If Luke [Ronchi] is injured and out of the tournament, there'd be a straight swap. Somebody else might need to keep for a game or two. Assuming we go with five seamers, our keeper is going to have to be able to bat at the top and in the middle. That's one of trade-offs you make."

Tom Latham and Brendon McCullum could manage such a scenario in the short-term.

Anton Devcich's shoulder dislocation means he faces a race against time but Dean Brownlie showed promise in transitioning to opener.

Brownlie had a frustrating tour with his inability to anchor the innings, an issue which extends to the one-dayers against South Africa when he batted at No 3. His scores of 20, 24, 14, 47, 42 and 34 since returning to the ODI frame in October suggest he's competent.

In the same period, Martin Guptill's had scores of 5, 11, 12, 58 and 8 but shone with 129 and 75 for New Zealand A.

"I think Dean's asked some good questions with his intent at the top," Hesson said.

"He certainly deserves a lot of discussion about whether he should be in the squad."

One area neither selector will be fretting over is Nos 3 and 4.

Kane Williamson (97) and Ross Taylor (88 not out) again proved what a force they can be, making the fourth century partnership (116) in their last eight ODI innings together.

The pair now have the second and third-highest averages in New Zealand ODI history (Williamson 43.51 and Taylor 41.26), behind Glenn Turner's 47.

They've batted together 23 times in the 50-over format and average 56.04.