KEY POINTS:
Two months ago the idea of making his New Zealand debut against the West Indies would not have entered Martin Guptill's head.
Suffering a potentially career-threatening injury can do that to sporting ambitions. At the end of October the tall, lean Auckland batsman dislocated his right knee batting
in a practice match at Whangarei.
Gone until New Year was the early prognosis of a painful injury. But, in medical talk, he 'rehabbed' remarkably well, regained his fine touch of last summer and yesterday was confirmed as one of two debutants in the side to play the West Indies at Eden Park in the fourth ODI tomorrow.
While Otago's Neil Broom has been in the squad from the start of the five-match series on drinks and occasional fielding duty, Guptill got his chance at Jamie How's expense, the Central Districts' batsman's outstanding fielding insufficient compensation for an ordinary run of batting form.
Guptill will bat No 3 tomorrow, behind the dashing duo of Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder and he's delighted. Blowing the kneecap was a gut-wrenching moment for a batsman who had caught the selectors' eye last season, when he cracked 596 State Shield runs at 59.6, and impressed on Emerging Players and New Zealand A trips to Queensland and India in the winter.
"I was in really good form, and it was a bad time to do the knee really," he said yesterday. "But I'm really happy the way it's come on and where I've got to from there."
Guptill, who marked his first-class debut for Auckland with a sharply contrasting double of 0 and 99 against Wellington in March 2006, two months after his first provincial one-dayer, is a player who seemed destined for a chance at the top. The 22-year-old Suburbs New Lynn batsman has very much been a case of when, not if.
He returned to the Auckland team before Christmas, and immediately hit 148, his maiden first-class hundred, against Otago.
His shield form was patchy early - 1, 23 and 1 - before cracking a fine 124 off 97 balls against Northern Districts, then following up with a smart 58 against Otago last Monday to help the bottom-placed Auckland side grab their first win of the competition. His strike rate this season is over 100, and he's averaging 41.
Guptill believes he's in the best form of his life. From that perspective, his selection is an excellent piece of timing.
Guptill has been given simple advice ahead of his debut: be yourself.
"The selectors just basically said to play my normal game, which is what I've been doing for Auckland and so far it's worked pretty well," he said.
Guptill could have opened, as he mostly does for Auckland, but the selectors, Glenn Turner, Dion Nash and John Wright, have stuck with McCullum and Ryder at the top of the order. It's a vibrant pairing, albeit lacking consistency, but for now they retain the selectors' confidence, and in any case Guptill, with a nice sense of rhyming, said yesterday, "1, 2 or 3, I don't mind, it's all the same to me".
Broom has been flying under the radar for a while, consistently getting runs for Otago.
The former under 19 international - Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder were among his teammates at the World Cup at Lincoln in 2002 - is in his fourth season with Otago after moving south from Christchurch to get more game time.
He's averaging 63 in the four-day State Championship, but his numbers over 45 one-dayers - an average of 34.08, eight half centuries and a strike rate of 75.9 - are more relevant.
"I've been performing pretty consistently so I'm pretty happy with my form. It's just a really good feeling to be picked after two or three years when I was on the outskirts of maybe getting picked," Broom said.
The 25-year-old is expected to bat at No 6 in a side for whom the 12th man is expected to be either offspinner Jeetan Patel or fast-medium Mark Gillespie.
The loss of allrounder Jacob Oram means greater bowling is likely to fall medium-pace pair Grant Elliott and Ryder's way tomorrow.
