Brendon McCullum will play his first first-class game for Otago for nearly seven years, and also captain the side, as Otago looks to bounce back from a disappointing start in the Plunket Shield.
Otago got off to a poor start in the four-day competition last week, with Northern Districts winning by 10 wickets inside three days at the University Oval.
Otago does not have a lot of time to regather its thoughts before it plays Canterbury in Rangiora today.
The Canterbury side got its season off to a decent start, with a first-innings victory over Wellington in its opening game, and will have the added bonus of having Shane Bond back into first-class cricket.
Otago was due to welcome back its five players away on duty with the national team in Dubai but because of injury only McCullum and Neil Broom will pad up for the side.
McCullum's older brother, Nathan, is scheduled to have an MRI scan on an injured groin which has been troubling him for over a month and does not appear to be improving.
Ian Butler has a strained leg while Aaron Redmond suffered a lower abdominal injury while bowling last week in a twenty/20 game against Pakistan.
Hamish Rutherford drops out of the 12 while Craig Cumming is playing for an invitational XI against Pakistan in Queenstown, starting tomorrow.
Otago coach Mike Hesson said McCullum's groin had been troubling him since the Champions League in India last month and with no improvement it was felt the best course of action was to have an MRI scan and see what the exact problem was.
Until the scan, which would take place this week, was carried out it was impossible to tell how serious the injury was and how long McCullum would be unavailable.
It will be a welcome return to the Otago whites for Brendon McCullum who last played a four-day match for Otago in December 2002, against Northern Districts at Carisbrook.
He scored a century in that game and a similar return would be most welcomed by his team-mates and supporters.
McCullum will bat in the middle order but will leave the wicketkeeping to Derek de Boorder.
His return to Otago colours will undoubtedly help the side but it needs more of the top order to produce some runs if it wants to be a force in the four-day game.
Hesson said it would have been great to have all of the side's internationals back but injury was part and parcel of the game as was the loss of captain Cumming.
"Craig is going to be a massive loss and without Aaron Redmond coming back the pressure is going to be on the incumbent openers like Shaun Haig and Leighton Morgan to step up."
Hesson said in the early season games the winning of the toss was of the utmost importance.
Otago was fired out for 88 in its first dig against Northern Districts after losing the toss, and Hesson admitted more was needed out of the batting department.
"It is not panic stations at all this early in the season.
"But there are guys who we would expect to front up and start scoring."
Canterbury welcomes back speedster Bond, who will play his first first-class game since he played county cricket in England in June last year.
Bond and Chris Martin will spearhead a quality Canterbury attack while Peter Fulton will want to take out his frustrations on someone after being left out of the invitational XI to play Pakistan.
The Rangiora track has traditionally played well for the batsmen but Hesson said this early in the season, there might be a bit in the track for the bowlers.
Plunket Shield
Teams
Otago: Brendon McCullum (captain), Leighton Morgan, Shaun Haig, Greg Todd, Neil Broom, Darren Broom, Derek de Boorder, Sam Wells, Warren McSkimming, Neil Wagner, Nick Beard, Anthony Bullick, Mathew Harvie.
Canterbury: Kruger van Wyk (captain), Michael Papps, Rob Nicol, Peter Fulton, Shane Bond, Shanan Stewart, Corey Anderson, Brandon Hiini, Andrew Ellis, Leighton Burtt, Chris Martin, Jason Donnelly, Todd Astle.
