KEY POINTS:
Anaru Kitchen is the new face in Auckland's squad of 13 for the opening round of the national one-day championship tomorrow.
The Waitakere City top order batsman has been on form in club cricket and gets his reward in the selection to face Central Districts at Eden Park.
Otherwise it's the usual faces who will start the State Shield campaign in which Auckland will be aiming to go one better than their beaten finalist finish last season.
That day, they probably thought 310 would be enough, but didn't count on Brendon McCullum blazing 170 off 108 balls as Otago won by seven wickets.
Paul Hitchcock comes in from the squad used for the four-day programme so far this season, and what the national selectors took away - in the form of Kyle Mills - they gave back with Chris Martin to spearhead the bowling attack.
"The batsmen have been scoring plenty of runs, and the bowlers have been having to work hard for their wickets," Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell said. "I think that's good preparation for the one-day game."
In other first-round games, Northern Districts are hosting Wellington in Whangarei and Canterbury play Otago in Christchurch.
AUCKLAND TEAM
* Auckland team to play Central Districts, Eden Park tomorrow, from 11am
Richard Jones (c), Martin Guptill, Paul Hitchcock, Scott Styris, Reece Young, Gareth Hopkins, Steven Croft, Colin de Grandhomme, Anaru Kitchen, Andy McKay, Michael Bates, Roneel Hira, Chris Martin.
