Williamson wants hardened New Zealand

Kane Williamson, the stand-in New Zealand captain, hopes the ODI series against Pakistan will expose his players to the pressures of 50-over matches and help build a strong squad for the World Cup.

"I think it's very important that we've got some young players and they're getting [to play] cricket," Williamson said. "Heading into a World Cup, more often than not, you don't get the team exactly how you want it. You get an injury or two and various other things can happen, so it is important that we have a variety of people or personnel playing at the highest level so when it comes to World Cup time guys have had some experiences under that sort of pressure.

"It's not so much an audition, it's very much about workloads as well. There's so much cricket before the World Cup so we're very conscious of that but we also want to put out our strongest side at the time."

Seven players of the New Zealand ODI squad have played less than 20 matches each. They will be without the talismanic Brendon McCullum, and Tim Southee and Trent Boult won't be around to grab wickets with the new ball.

They will, however, have the raw pace of Adam Milne and Matt Henry. Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills are canny limited-overs bowlers and Daniel Vettori has been something of a lucky charm for New Zealand on the tour.

"We have a couple of frontline bowlers back home at the moment, Trent and Tim, saying that we've got some young blokes that are coming up that have a little bit of extra pace which is promising for the future mixed with some experience at the moment with Kyle Mills," Williamson said. "Obviously, Vettori, McCullum who are all very experienced as well."

Conditions in the UAE barely mirror those the team would face in Australia and New Zealand, but Williamson explained that his side would only benefit from any experience that comes their way.

"I think for us being quite a young side as well, mixed with that experience, it's important that in any one-day game that you play, you are faced with different situations that you need to handle," he said. "So whether they are in conditions here or back home, you're still faced with those challenges and how we learn and develop decision-making in those will help us move forward as a one-day unit."