New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum struggled to hide his glee after Usman Khawaja was overlooked by Australian selectors for Wednesday's opening ODI.
Khawaja is in career-best form and was recently called into Australia's ODI squad following Aaron Finch's hamstring injury.
But the left-hander will be left on the sidelines in Auckland, where Shaun Marsh will partner David Warner at the top of the order.
"He's been the form batsman of the Australian summer across all forms of the game," McCullum said, having watched Khawaja score classy Test tons in Brisbane and Perth.
"He's in incredible touch.
"I was a bit surprised.
"Marsh is a very good player as well ... Australia have so much depth they can afford to have guys missing."
Steve Smith pointed to Australia's recent ODI form when asked why Khawaja had been overlooked.
"He's unlucky to miss out ... no doubt he'd be frustrated. He's hitting the ball extremely well," Smith said.
"But the one-day side is a tough side to break into.
"We're the current world champions. We've been playing some very good one-day cricket and the batters have been scoring lots of runs.
"We scored 300 on every occasion in the recent one-day series (against India)."
The complication is that Khawaja needs match practice for the upcoming two-Test series, when Australia will be bidding to regain the No.1 world ranking.
Khawaja was set to captain Queensland in a Sheffield Shield clash that starts in Adelaide on Wednesday prior to Finch's setback.
Now he must hope for a recall to the ODI XI in Wellington or Hamilton before pulling on the whites.
"I think he'll play one of the (three ODI) games at least," Smith said.
"He does need a hit going into what is a big Test series and he's batting extremely well.
"It's a tough side to break into but I'm sure, if he gets an opportunity, he'll take it with both hands."
Marsh scored 71, 62 and seven in the ODI series against India.
"He played well in Australia and he is batting extremely well as well, so he's getting the first opportunity," Smith said.
Legspinner Adam Zampa and paceman Scott Boland were the other two members of the 14-man touring party left out of the XI.
Josh Hazlewood, who hasn't played since January 12, returns to spearhead Australia's attack.
"We've got quite an inexperienced bowling attack. We've got quite a few guys that are out but the guys are learning quite quickly," Smith said.
Smith added would-be debutant Zampa was considered.
"We've traditionally done quite well using Maxwell as our spinner ... we suspect it will swing around a little bit and we're going to make use of that," the skipper added.
McCullum expected the pitch would turn based on his side's recent ODI at the same venue against Pakistan.
"The wicket the other day was a little bit slow. We're playing on the same pitch," McCullum said, explaining Ish Sodhi's elevation to the squad.
AUSTRALIA: Shaun Marsh, David Warner, Steve Smith (capt), George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, James Faulkner, John Hastings, Kane Richardson, Josh Hazlewood.
Share
