Nathan Astle's prospective unavailability for the New Zealand team to return to Australia for next month's tri-series with Australia and South Africa has thrown increased emphasis on domestic cricket games starting today.

One round of State Championship games starts today and two rounds of the State Shield will be played before the touring side is announced on January 3.

It was only last week that the naming of the side was delayed until then, but it proved a fortuitous move. Compounding the situation is the suspension of Dion Nash from all games until January 3. Before Astle's news that would probably have been enough for the selectors to discount him, but now?

January 3 is also the day Astle has a plaster cast removed from the hand on which he suffered a cracked bone when he was batting in the first Test against Bangladesh.

Easily New Zealand's best one-day batsman, Astle, if unavailable and the prospect is high, would leave a huge gap in the side with no obvious replacement.

He has been such a commanding opening batsman that the selectors have spent the last two years trying to find him an opening partner. The question remains unresolved.

Anyone able to provide consistent scoring in the three remaining games is likely to come into the picture.

The obvious considerations have to be:

Chris Nevin - the incumbent one-day opener after being selected in the non-touring team to Pakistan, but still to provide the selectors with the runs that would warrant his retention.

Lou Vincent - showed in his debut Test in Perth that he has the class to succeed but has played his earlier ODIs in the middle-order.

Mathew Sinclair - scored two centuries for New Zealand in Sri Lanka earlier in the year and looked to have resolved some batting issues, but has fallen into a scoring trough.

A little more out of left field could be:

Mark Richardson - has a love of a good battle, the less inhibiting field settings for ODIs and an attacking bent revealed in run chases during the recent Test series in Australia.

Matt Horne - not a prolific performer in ODIs but offers experience and solidity at the top of the order and well capable of playing an anchor role.

Right out of left field could be:

Brendon McCullum - attack is McCullum's second nature and he has already scored his maiden first-class century this summer and played some fine innings. If the World Cup is in the selectors' minds, rather than the short term then McCullum, with runs under his belt in these three games, could be a suitable choice.

Andrew Hore - the nearest thing in New Zealand cricket to a batsman in the Mark Greatbatch mould to take an attack apart. He is experienced enough to handle the pressure and could be an exciting sight on Australian pitches.

Dion Nash - so technically correct, and in good batting touch with the hard competitive core so beloved of the selectors, as a short term fix he might enjoy the challenge of getting New Zealand off to a good start.

There may be others who could also come into the frame: Aaron Barnes of Auckland, Richard Jones of Wellington or David Kelly of Central Districts.

The chance is clearly there, who will respond?

© CricInfo