Cricket: White Ferns name squads for Australia showdown

Leigh Kasperek is back for the White Ferns. Photo / Photosport

Off-spinner Leigh Kasperek is back in the New Zealand women's cricket team for the home-and-away limited-overs series against world champions Australia.

The former Scottish international broke her spinning finger in a training accident ahead of the series against South Africa and the injury also kept her out of the home series against Pakistan in November.

Her return means there is no room for off-spinner Morna Nielsen who is omitted from the squad along with Hannah Rowe and Samantha Curtis.

The White Ferns play three T20s against Australian starting under lights at the MCG on February 17 then cross the Tasman for three one-dayers starting in Auckland on February 26.

Coach Haidee Tiffen said naming the ODI and T20 squads was a difficult task.

"Good players have missed out because the competition for spots in our world class side is now more intense than ever. We have improved depth, so we have hard choices to make -- and that is exactly the situation we want," she said.

ICC women's player of 2016 Suzie Bates will captain both sides and promising 16 -year-old legspinner Amelia Kerr, who made her debut against Pakistan, will play only in the one-dayers.

Tiffen said the team would be boosted by those who have played in the WBBL.

"It has provided a litmus test for a number of our players against Australia's top cricketers," she said as the side builds towards this year's World Cup.

T20 squad: Suzie Bates (captain), Erin Bermingham, Sophie Devine, Maddy Green, Holly Huddleston, Leigh Kasperek, Katey Martin, Thamsyn Newton, Katie Perkins, Liz Perry, Rachel Priest, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu.

ODI squad: Suzie Bates (captain), Erin Bermingham, Sophie Devine, Maddy Green, Holly Huddleston, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Katey Martin, Thamsyn Newton, Katie Perkins, Liz Perry, Rachel Priest, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu.

-AAP