KEY POINTS:
Friday night in Wellington saw perhaps the first game in the official build-up to the World Cup in the Caribbean at the end of summer.
It was also the first tentative example of the Black Caps' intention to employ a rotation policy during the New Zealand summer.
The term rotation was a dirty word in its early days (when employed by rugby) but a winter of domination by an enlarged All Blacks squad saw the critics start to realise the All Blacks' second team could also produce winning performances.
The Black Caps may not enjoy the same dominance as they make their way through the contentious rotation theory and the critics may never turn, but New Zealand Cricket needs rotation more than the All Blacks ever did.
The cricket World Cup will be won by a squad and that has never been more needed when you look at our history of injury woe.
New Zealand cricket does not have the same depth of talent as our rugby.
We have about a team's worth of adequate internationals with a small number of world class players who, when all fit, produce a synergy.
The goal should be to increase the pool of adequate players - and when you don't rate your domestic competition to do this, then the international stage is the only place to develop talent.
It's a double-edged sword because, against high-quality opposition without our best players in their best positions, we would struggle to win matches.
Sure, experience will be gained but you want that to be the experience of performing roles and in a fashion that develops a winning habit. Because it's a habit you want to develop come World Cup time.
However, looking at the current situation, we don't yet have players in defined roles and definitely don't have a winning habit.
So perhaps it is best Black Caps coach John Bracewell refers to this policy as experimentation.
It's an experiment to play Brendon McCullum as an opener, to play around with the left-right combinations at the top of the order, to play Jeetan Patel and see if Andre Adams can be a specialist 'death overs' bowler - and they are all experiments that have to be undertaken.
The trick will be when to settle on the combinations, positions and roles the Blacks Caps reckon are most likely to provide success and get them in the habit of winning regularly.
The next trick will be a balancing act of which players to wrap in cotton wool and for how long.
It's good ensuring Shane Bond is kept fit but not so good if he ends up underdone.
Welcome to the summer of experimentation and injury prevention. Just don't mention rotation.
