And Otago has a new rock in the middle.
Thorn Parkes made a big impression in the opening game of the season.
The 22-year-old left-hander struck back-to-back half centuries to help set up a 168-run against Auckland at Eden Park Outer Oval last week.
His knock of 54 in the first innings and 58 in the second were the two highest tallies in what was a low-scoring affair.
It was a very strong showing for a young man playing in just his second first-class game.
Parkes spent a good chunk of the off-season working on his game, but that game was not always cricket.
He popped up on the team sheet for the Dunedin premier side "seven or eight" times, initially at halfback, but also at first five and fullback.
"Rugby has been hard to give up, to be honest ... but I think that might have been the last one," Parkes said.
The accountancy student, who made his first-class debut last season, still had plenty of time left during the day to get into the nets and work on different aspects of his technique.
Having access to the winter marquee and high performance coaching had helped him get into a great space ahead of the season.
"The big work-on over winter was preparing for spin, really," he said.
"It was about moving my feet, getting outside my crease and moving forward. I’m a big sweeper and I like to stay crease-bound, so I was just trying to work on that and also getting quite deep as well.
"It was mainly all spin work, really."
He barely had to do any of that against Auckland.
Otago was inserted and had slipped to 55 for three when Parkes went out to bat. He teamed up with Dale Phillips and the pair added 97 for the fourth wicket — the highest partnership of the game.
It was tough going earlier in the morning. The ball was swinging and seaming, but Parkes did not find the conditions too tough.
"It wasn’t about getting too forward or too back, it was about holding your shape and making sure you didn’t play towards the wider ones which did nip away.
"I’m pretty stoked with my start. I wasn’t stoked at the time. I thought we were a little bit short of where we needed to be. But the bowlers made it look like we had a few extra runs on the board."
Jacob Duffy and Travis Muller combined to take 15 of the 20 wickets in a sharp bowling effort.
They could be back in action today.
Otago has stuck with the same side which was successful against Auckland, although it has added left arm spinner Ben Lockrose should they need another slow bowling option against Northern Districts at Bay Oval today.
Northern Districts has made one change. Pace bowler Scott Kuggeleijn replaces Katene Clarke. Northern had a tense one-wicket loss to Wellington at the Basin Reserve last week.
Bharat Popli scored his fifth first-class hundred and Matt Fisher claimed his maiden first-class five-wicket bag.
The side also features Black Caps left-armer Neil Wagner, Colin de Grandhomme, Jeet Raval and Tim Seifert.
Plunket Shield
Bay Oval
Otago: Hamish Rutherford (captain), Jacob Cumming, Dale Phillips, Dean Foxcroft, Thorn Parkes, Max Chu, Michael Rippon, Travis Muller, Jake Gibson, Jacob Duffy, Michael Rae, Jarrod McKay, Ben Lockrose.
Northern Districts: Jeet Raval, Henry Cooper, Bharat Popli, Joe Carter (captain), Tim Seifert, Colin de Grandhomme, Brett Hampton, Scott Kuggeleijn, Neil Wagner, Joe Walker, Matthew Fisher, Kristian Clarke.
