Bracewell, who had captained New Zealand in the T20I series against Pakistan, will hand over the reins to Tom Latham for the ODI leg. Mitch Hay, who smashed an unbeaten 86 off 76 balls in the Ford Trophy final for Canterbury, has been selected as the second wicketkeeper.
Kelly will likely open with Will Young in the absence of Ravindra and Devon Conway, who are both with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL. Kelly, 31, has been rewarded for his strong domestic form this season. In the Ford Trophy, he scored 320 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of over 100 and currently tops the four-day Plunket Shield run charts with 749 runs in 14 innings at an average of nearly 58, including four centuries.
Kelly also has some white-ball exposure outside of New Zealand, having played for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in CPL 2020.
Sam Wells, the New Zealand selection manager, saw the upcoming series against Pakistan as an opportunity to test out the fringe players.
“With the next ICC ODI pinnacle event still two and half years away, the series is a perfect opportunity to introduce, or re-introduce in the case of Adi, these players to international cricket now,” Wells said. “Nick has been the standout domestic batsman the last few seasons. He is a dynamic strokemaker with power, and he can bat anywhere in the top six.
“Mo is one of our most promising young batters and he also provides a sixth bowling option which is required in the absence of Rachin [Ravindra] and Glenn [Phillips].”
New Zealand head coach Gary Stead is looking forward to working with Kelly and Abbas. “He’s been a very, very strong domestic player for the last couple of years and I think fully deserves his spot in the team. He’ll bat at the top of the order. We’re excited to see what he might bring,” Stead said of Kelly. “Overall, we’re looking to build the depth of our players, and this tour augurs well for us in that regard to be able to do so. Mo Abbas, he’s a younger player. Very, very exciting.”
“I think a real, real talent, especially in playing spin bowling. I guess his ability to bowl a little bit of left-arm seam as well is really helpful in terms of us trying to build our depth of allrounders. With the ODI World Cup being two and a half years away in South Africa, it’s a nice opportunity for us to blood some new players and see their credentials as well.”
While Stead will lead the New Zealand support staff, alongside batting coach Luke Ronchi, regular bowling coach Jacob Oram will take a break. Graeme Alridge, the NZC development coach, will fill in for Oram.
This will be New Zealand’s first ODI assignment since they made the final of the Champions Trophy. As the Black Caps prepare for the 2027 ODI World Cup, players with national and domestic contracts were prioritised for selection.
New Zealand ODI squad
Tom Latham (capt, wk), Muhammad Abbas, Adithya Ashok, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Mitch Hay (wk), Nick Kelly, Daryl Mitchell, Will O’Rourke, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Will Young
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
