They’re Otago-contracted fast bowler Mason Clarke, 18, who played in the last tournament in South Africa early last year, and Wakatipu High school leaver Hugo Bogue, 17, who gets to wear the silver fern for the first time.
An aggressive opening batter, Hugo — currently playing for Wakatipu High in the First XI Cup finals in Lincoln, near Christchurch — has already enjoyed a stellar season.
Following back-to-back season-opening centuries for Dunedin premier side Albion, he scored 169 for Otago at the U19 nationals in Lincoln two weeks ago.
Mason says he’s "stoked" to be re-selected for the NZ side — at 16, he was its youngest player last year — "and even probably more stoked to have Hugo coming with me".
"We’ve grown up training together, and coming from Queenstown I think it really shows the strength of the club and the community that supports us."
As for learnings from his first CWC, "the one thing I learnt is there’s just a whole lot of white noise around, like with everyone watching, so I think for me it’s just about this time trying to focus on what I need to do and what really matters".
His other advantage this time is he’s now a contracted Otago player, so he’s been able to train full-time.
Meanwhile, Hugo says after watching Mason at the last CWC, "I was, like, ‘I want to do that, that’s where I want to go"’.
"I think I’ve learned a lot about the way I bat over the past few years and this year I am sort of clicking a bit more, which is nice."
NZ’s pool games, all in Bulawayo, are against the United States (January 18), Bangladesh (January 20) and India (January 24).
