Otago captain Craig Cumming will have a chance to press for a test recall when he plays Pakistan in Queenstown this week.
Cumming is the only Otago player named in a New Zealand Invitation XI to play the tourists at the Events Centre in a three-day game starting on Wednesday.
The match is the final chance for Black Caps contenders to impress before the first test starting at Dunedin's University Oval on November 24.
Tim McIntosh is one incumbent opener and Daniel Flynn is also expected to retain his place in the top order, but there is a genuine opportunity for Cumming or Northern Districts opener BJ Watling to play their way into the team.
With Jesse Ryder still sidelined, the Black Caps may move Flynn down to No 5 and move opener Martin Guptill to No 3, leaving an opening position clear.
Cumming was in cracking form last summer and scored a century in Otago's opening Plunket Shield game last week.
Other test aspirants in the Invitation side include pace bowlers Iain O'Brien, Darryl Tuffey and Tim Southee and all-rounders James Franklin and Grant Elliott.
Auckland wicketkeeper Reece Young gets the gloves, provincial team-mate Tarun Nethula is the spin option and Northern's Brent Arnel adds to the pace attack.
All 12 members of the squad will play during the course of the three-day game, at the request of Pakistan, which is officially the host for the test series.
Elliott and Tuffey have recovered from injuries received at the Champions Trophy in South Africa.
