One fresh face will definitely receive an outing for the Otago Volts when they take on Auckland in Invercargill tomorrow.
The Volts have been forced into changes as a result of injuries to bowlers Jacob Duffy and Nathan Smith.
Duffy picked up a low-grade quad strain in the loss to Canterbury over the weekend while Smith fractured a bone in his hand and is out for the rest of the domestic season. Duffy may be back for the final game of the season.
Coming into the side to replace the duo are Jarod McKay and Angus McKenzie. McKay, a tall right-arm pace bowler, is a contracted Otago player but has mainly been limited to Otago A games and club cricket.
He has played one first-class game but that was for Central Districts before he joined Otago this season.
Otago coach Rob Walter said McKay had put in a huge amount of work over the summer, had trained hard and improved as a bowler.
McKenzie has played for the Volts in the shortened versions of the game but if he does play it will be his first-class debut.
McKenzie moved from Wellington and it appears to have paid dividends.
Matt Bacon, who was out for nearly two months because of a broken finger picked up in a twenty20 game in January, was 12th man for the match in Christchurch last week.
He is sure to come back into the side adding some experience to the side but one of McKenzie and McKay will make the starting XI.
The pitch in Invercargill is a bit of an unknown and Otago team will have a the first look at it today.
Auckland sits third on the Plunket Shield table having bagged two wins from its five games. Canterbury is way out in front with 80 points, 32 points ahead of second-placed Northern Districts.
Otago will be looking for a dose of revenge after it was hammered by an innings against Auckland in the first game of the season.
