Northern Districts will have no shortage of new ball firepower when they take on Auckland in the opening round of the Ford Trophy 50-over competition at Eden Park's Outer Oval tomorrow.

Bay of Plenty Blackcaps Trent Boult and Neil Wagner are not yet required for the national team's trip to the United Arab Emirates to meet Pakistan, so continue to prepare for international duty playing domestic cricket for ND.

Neither has been named in the Blackcaps team for the Twenty20 series in the UAE beginning November 1. Boult will join the tour in time for the ODIs starting November 8, while Wagner is not required until the test series starts on November 16.

Both have played a major part in ND's strong start to the first class Plunket Shield season, which after two rounds is now on hold until February. They blew away Otago at the Bay Oval, then came within one wicket of a second win over Canterbury in Christchurch.

Boult took four wickets in the Otago victory, though made more of an impression with the bat. His career best 61 in the match helped his side to a first innings lead, and may well have given him a strong case to move up the batting order from his customary 11 in the one-day side.

At the same time Wagner has been on fire with the ball, taking 12 wickets across the two matches to put him top of the wicket-taking charts.

They are two of five Bay of Plenty-based players named in the team.

Dean Brownlie, who's replaced Daniel Flynn as captain for the one-dayers, is keen to see how they will perform after such a solid start to the new campaign.

'The team is playing some good cricket early in the season,” he says.

'We're looking forward to transferring our momentum over to the Ford Trophy.”

The return of Anton Devcich is also helping give Northern Districts an international look. The latest stop for him on the global T20 franchise league tour has been the Afghanistan Premier League, but there's no place like home, he says.

'It's been great playing in different conditions, cultures and playing next to some world-renowned T20 players, but I've really missed the ND pre-season and am looking forward to playing with all the lads once again.

'Hopefully we can start this competition off in style,” he says.

Northern Districts' white ball season last summer was dominated by their Burger King SuperSmash trophy win, but they may feel they carry over unfinished business in the 50-over format. They finished third in the Ford Trophy after their 168 run humiliation from Canterbury in the second Preliminary Final in Whangarei cost them a final appearance.

Round one of the Ford Trophy starts at 11am tomorrow at Eden Park Outer Oval.

Northern Districts Team to Play Auckland:

Dean Brownlie (c) Bay of Plenty

Peter Bocock Hamilton

Trent Boult Bay of Plenty

Henry Cooper Northland

Anton Devcich Hamilton

Daniel Flynn Bay of Plenty

Zak Gibson Waikato Valley

Brett Hampton Bay of Plenty

Nick Kelly Counties Manukau

Daryl Mitchell Hamilton

Brett Randell Northland

Neil Wagner Bay of Plenty