After being earmarked as the man to replace Martin Guptill at the top of the Blackcaps batting order, Finn Allen has ultimately fallen short in his attempt to book his ticket to this year's Cricket World Cup in India.
As Guptill's international career was effectively ended when he opted out of his New Zealand Cricket central contract, Allen was backed to fill the void left by arguably the Blackcaps' greatest ODI batter.
However, while Allen is a staple in the Blackcaps' Twenty20 side, his form in 50-over cricket has seen him fall out of contention to reach his first World Cup.
After 19 games, Allen averages less than 30 with the bat, with a high score of 96 and five half-centuries.
Those numbers pale to what Allen offers in T20 cricket, striking one century and scoring at an impressive strike rate of 159.26 in the shortest format.
Instead, Will Young has been backed as the man to partner Devon Conway at the top of the order – averaging just under 47 with two centuries from his 17 games.
With conditions in India at the World Cup – likely to be low and slow to accommodate spin over fast bowlers – patience will be vital for top-order players when the tournament begins next month.
And with Allen unable to rein in his ultra-aggressive instincts, coach Gary Stead outlined why Young got the nod.
"We had to make a decision, ultimately for the opening batter position," Stead explained. "It came down to Finn and Will Young.
"We just felt, when we looked at what the potential gameplan was looking like in India, looked at the grounds, and also looked at the form of the two players as well – we felt Youngy was the right guy to go with."
Arguably, the big winner of the 15-man squad is Wellington all-rounder Rachin Ravindra.
Just seven games into his ODI career, an injury to Michael Bracewell opened the door for the 23-year-old to head to his first World Cup, with his left-arm spin to support Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi in the bowling department.
Another one to be earmarked as the future of the Blackcaps, Ravindra has played just 28 games in all formats since his debut in 2021, with most of those coming in T20.
But Bracewell's injury has opened the door for Ravindra leading into the World Cup, and his selection was rewarded with career-best bowling figures of 3/48 against England on Saturday justifies why he'll head to his first World Cup.
"Rachin's still relatively young when it comes to his international career," Stead added.
"Being we're going to India, being we're likely at some stages to face spin-friendly conditions, we wanted to make sure we had options of three spinners in the squad who could potentially play, depending on what the conditions were at the time.
"We liked the way Rachin bowled in Cardiff, he bowled 10 overs there as the frontline spinner.
"It was nice to see his development, and confidence he will gain from that as well."
