NZ aim to win ODIs

Squads named by the New Zealand cricket selectors for the One-Day and Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe were not trial teams, New Zealand would be going out to win.

Coach John Wright said winning would always be the aim, that was the whole emphasis when picking teams.

Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder were out of consideration so replacements were necessary so they opted to pick players who had produced form this year.

At the same time a player like Canterbury left-hander Tom Latham might be seen as young but against a team like Zimbabwe it was felt to be a good time to have a look at him at international level.

There were match-ups in both teams named to see how the players fit into the team, how they conducted themselves and the quality of their cricket.

That allowed the selectors to look at the spin situation and the all-rounder situation.

"At the end of this series we'll be in a better position to pick the side going into playing South Africa," he said.

There was no thought to leaving out players like Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson or Dean Brownlie for them to get some domestic form behind them. They needed to play to get better and they were capable of batting in all three forms of the game.

"I think they're going to be part of New Zealand's team for a long time to come," he said.