Wynne Gray: Whirlwind Gayle set to fire the Windies

West Indies batsman Chris Gayle. Photo / Photosport

The familiar swagger arrived with Chris Gayle. The accent, appearance and social reputation wrap his around his cricketing talent which is for hire worldwide.

He's broken from his latest gig in Bangladesh to open the West Indies batting in the ODI series against New Zealand before moving his explosive hitting into the truncated T20 form of the game.

Gayle is the headline noise for the Windies with an undefeated 146 in his last innings in the BPL league in Dhaka where he sent 18 deliveries over the ropes on the full.

There's no rest for the 38-year-old while strangely, New Zealand will park captain Kane Williamson and Tim Southee after Wednesday's opening match in Whangarei in the three game ODI series.

That's a head scratcher as much as Gayle threatens to be if he finds his range against the white ball at Cobham Oval. The Windies need all the help they can muster because they were disappointing in most areas as they stumbled through the two-test series.

New Zealand have reworked their choices with Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, George Worker and Todd Astle coming into the group alongside left-handed opener Colin Munro whose hitting can be explosively productive at the top of the order when there are field restrictions.

Injury to Martin Guptill and bereavement leave for Colin de Grandhomme have chipped away at some New Zealand plans but there should still be enough all-round power in the home conditions to get over the visitors.

They took India to the wire in their last one-day series in late October. Munro clobbered an unbeaten ton in the second game as New Zealand and then hit 75 at better than a run a ball as NZ narrowly failed to chase down a 50 over target of 332 in Kanpur. Munro hit eight fours and three maximums to offer a sparky start before the Indian bowlers checked the run rate.

This month Munro tuned up for his international work as he smashed 174 to overshadow the opposition appearance of sidelined English international Ben Stokes. Munro tonked Stokes multiple times over the ropes and the umpire had to step in to separate some verbal scuffling.

Munro says a bit of aggro fires him up and he feels he performs best when he faces quality fast bowlers. On a true surface against good pace he loves to hit hits through the line.

If fast bowlers Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel and Jerome Taylor find their rhythm they will test Munro but the Windies may go for the innovation NZ have tried down the years by opening with a slow bowler to challenge how he adapts.