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New Zealand's player base has been the hardest hit of all the major cricketing nations by defections to the two Indian Twenty20 leagues.

In the past year no fewer than eight quality players have abandoned Test cricket in favour of truck loads of rupees. Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming, Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Daryl Tuffey and Lou Vincent were all key players with several years of international service left. Bond and Fleming would have walked into England's current team.

Inevitably these departures left the Kiwi Test team denuded of experience when it came to choosing the players for the three-match series starting at Lord's on 15 May and continuing to Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. Only four of the 15 confirmed players (another seam bowler, either Mark Gillespie or Michael Mason, will be added after 1 May) have played in more than 11 Test matches and three, Daniel Flynn, Gareth Hopkins and Aaron Redmond, are uncapped.

Selection panel manager Sir Richard Hadlee, in his final act in that office, put a brave face on this desperate situation: These squads signal the future for the Blackcaps (the commercial name for the Kiwis) and there are a number of exciting selections.' Apart from the absence of their world class fast bowler, Bond, the tourists' bowling strength is virtually unscathed. Chris Martin (136 wickets) is a wholehearted trier in the Ryan Sidebottom mould and has recently gained a yard in pace. Unlike Kyle Mills and James Oram, he also seems impervious to injury. Tim Southee has pace, a good classic action and can swing the ball late. He enjoyed a dream debut and, at only 19, he should become the pillar of their attack for at least a decade. They will rely heavily on their captain, Daniel Vettori (244 wickets), who is indisputably the best left-arm spinner on the current international circuit. Off-spinner Jeetan Patel, although inexperienced, also showed considerable control.

It is the batting that will cause sleepless nights. Fleming's retirement is a major blow. He was the only batsman with the technical skill to cope with Sidebottom's accuracy and movement in last month's series. Had he not been stripped of the Test captaincy after retiring from the limited-overs game, he would definitely have extended his career to include this summer's series.

Although Jamie How showed promise, he made just one fifty in six knocks and, with the hapless Matthew Bell as his partner, New Zealand's opening stands averaged 19 and never reached 50. His new partner will be either James Marshall (Test average 23) or the uncapped Redmond. Marshall is the twin brother of Gloucestershire's Hamish. The two are so identical that even their parents don't know which is which. Redmond (28) is the son of Rodney whose only Test appearance produced scores of 107 and 56 against Pakistan at Auckland in February 1973. For the past four seasons, he has been a consistent opening batsman for Otago but averages only 31 and has scored just four hundreds in 111 first-class innings.

They will rely heavily on Ross Taylor who averaged 51 in the recent series and passed 50 in four of his six innings. Flynn, a 23-year-old left-hander who averages 33 with four hundreds from 40 innings, could develop into the best of the lot. In Oram, wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum and Vettori, New Zealand boasts the strongest middle-order around.

The selectors have risked a shambolic start to the tour by allowing five players, including the captain and vice-captain, to miss the opening games against MCC (27 April at Arundel) and Kent (28-30 April at Canterbury) because of their IPL commitments.

Test squad (number of caps in brackets): Batsmen - Daniel Flynn (0), Peter Fulton (7), Jamie How (9), James Marshall (5), Aaron Redmond (0) and Ross Taylor (5); Bowlers - Chris Martin (40), Kyle Mills (11), Iain O'Brien (6), Jeetan Patel (3), Tim Southee (1) and Daniel Vettori (captain - 79); All-rounder - Jacob Oram (27); Wicket-keepers - Gareth Hopkins (0) and Brendon McCullum (vice-captain - 32). Either Mark Gillespie (2) or Michael Mason (1), both fast-medium bowlers, will be added.

5:21pm Wednesday 9th April 2008

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