New Zealand will host South Africa in three one-day internationals in October and then head to the United Arab Emirates to play Pakistan in three tests, two twenty20s and five ODIs.
Sri Lanka arrives in December for two tests and seven ODIs. Then there are two more home ODIs against Pakistan before the World Cup gets under way in February.
It is a busy schedule, and the Black Caps will have ample opportunity to experiment and get it right. But, as of right now, there are opening spots up for grabs in all three formats.
Canterbury's Tom Latham and Otago's Hamish Rutherford are the test incumbents. Latham has secured his place for now following a good tour of the West Indies. Rutherford, not so much.
Rutherford was not selected for the first test but was called in for the second and third tests to replace the out-of-form Peter Fulton. He failed to grasp his opportunity with a high score of 19 in four innings, but Black Caps coach Mike Hesson is pleased with the progress he has made on the New Zealand A tour.
''I think Hamish is a lot more confident now than he was then,'' Hesson told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
''We thought Hamish made some good ground during the A tour. Even before going, he got back to some of his more normal traits in terms of being more balanced at the crease. So that was an improvement from the West Indies.''
Rutherford may keep his spot simply because no-one else has mounted a more compelling case.
The door is closed to Fulton unless he can pry it open by scoring plenty of runs. There is no opportunity to do that before the test series against Pakistan, so strike his name from the list.
Dean Brownlie has signalled his intention to push for an opener's spot by transferring to Northern Districts to give himself an opportunity at the top of the Knights' order.
''We'd like to see how he goes [first],'' Hesson responded when asked whether Brownlie was in the mix.
Michael Bracewell had a tremendous summer, scoring four centuries for Otago in the Plunket Shield. He is certainly a player on Hesson's radar but perhaps not ready for the step up just yet.
''We put Michael on the New Zealand A tour because we think he has a lot of promise. He had a really good back half of the Plunket Shield. But he is still finding his feet ... and let's hope he can back it up this year.''
Veteran openers Aaron Redmond and Michael Papps have been productive during the past few seasons and perhaps may be options as a stop-gap.
''They will certainly be part of our discussion.''
Martin Guptill ''is making some progress with his game and he certainly needed to improve a few technical areas'', Hesson added.
There is ''no'' temptation to shuffle the rest of the order, perhaps promoting Kane Williamson or Brendon McCullum.
''If you do that, you compromise other parts of your game. You need specialists in test cricket.''
None of Hesson's comments suggest he is contemplating making a change to the status quo.
He will have to find a replacement for Jesse Ryder at the top of the Black Caps one-day order, though.
Ryder has been performing wonders for Essex with the ball - he snared another five wickets yesterday - but he is still on the outer with New Zealand cricket following a night out drinking with Doug Bracewell on eve of the first test against India.
''Nothing has changed. We've made it really clear to Jesse what we want to see from him and at the moment we have not seen that change in behaviour yet,'' Hesson said.
''We'll catch up with Jesse when he gets back and see how he is progressing but we certainly won't compromise the team and we won't compromise our standards.''
Latham, Rutherford, Brownlie, Anton Devcich and possibly even James Neesham will compete to partner with Martin Guptill.
Neesham opened in the twenty20s with Kane Williamson on the tour of the West Indies and is a player with whom Hesson wants to continue experimenting.
''It is pretty obvious that we need someone in our top three who is a bowling option. If Kane is unable to bowl, we need one of our openers to be able to be one of our top six bowlers. It is very important we find out if James is able to do that role.
''The two twenty20s in West Indies went by in a blur and he felt like he had to go after them rather than just stick at the same tempo as he had already played. That was a bit of a learning experience for him.''
Those two may get the job again for the next twenty20 fixture.
