Opener Camden Hawkins split the webbing in his hand playing club cricket at the weekend and has been replaced in the line-up by Mitchell Renwick, while Angus McKenzie drops out of the 12 to make room for seamer Matt Bacon.
Although it is rotten luck for Hawkins, it is a reprieve of sorts for Renwick.
The wicketkeeper-batsman’s lean run had him dropped from all three formats this summer.
He has lost his spot behind the stumps to Max Chu. But tomorrow’s match is an opportunity for him to possibly cement a spot as a specialist batsmen.
Bacon is returning from an injury break. He fractured a bone in his hand while fielding during a T20 game in mid-January.
He will be competing for a spot in the starting XI with Travis Muller.
The Plunket Shield has been in hiatus since mid-November while the white-ball formats have been in action.
Here is a quick recap. The Volts struggled with the bat in the opening game and crashed to a heavy loss to Auckland at Eden Park Outer Oval.
They struck a star-studded Northern Districts side, which included Black Caps test bowlers Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme, in round two and lost by 90 runs.
But the Volts bounced back with a rare win against Wellington at the Basin Reserve.
Jacob Duffy snapped up four wickets in each innings to help seal the 84-run victory.
And they held on for a gutsy draw against a powerful Canterbury side in round four.
Canterbury has been in tremendous touch this summer. It was edged in the Super Smash final by Wellington but cruised to an eight-wicket win in the Ford Trophy final against Northern Districts and has set the pace in the Plunket Shield.
It has recorded three outright wins from four games and enjoys a healthy buffer at the top of the standings.
With the likes of internationals Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Matt Henry expected to be available, Otago coach Rob Walter pointed out his side has a daunting task ahead.
"They’ve had a good season in all formats, so it is going to be a stiff challenge. Their confidence must be brimming right now.
"But we had a pretty significant win at the Basin and we did some really good stuff to hang on for the draw when we got ourselves into trouble early [against Canterbury].
"We learnt a lot as a batting unit from that second innings, so we’ve definitively spoken about those things [leading into this game]."
