Kurtis Patterson has paid the price for NSW's horror Sheffield Shield season, with the captain dropped for the Blues' last match of the summer against South Australia.
NSW, who are yet to win a game and locked in to last place on the ladder, are staring down the barrel of their worst season in the state's illustrious history.
Patterson has been one of the Blues' better performers with the former Test batsman hitting one of the team's two Sheffield Shield centuries this season.
But his 417 runs at 29.78 and double failure against Victoria earlier this month is still well short of the returns the Blues were after.
"Our batting group have been inconsistent recently in delivering the runs necessary to establish the match positions we were looking for," interim coach Greg Shipperd said.
"We recognise it is a difficult decision to pass on your captain but we are confident Kurtis will regather and draw purpose from this call into the future.
"It was decided to support consistent and in-form batters in this season's last fixture, with the currency being runs."
Patterson's axing is made even more significant when considering the Blues are without experienced batsman Daniel Hughes, who has a calf injury.
It also means NSW will finish the season without the leaders they began the summer with, after coach Phil Jacques was shown the door in December.
Blake Nikitaras has also been dropped for the final round with Jason Sangha recalled to the squad alongside Ryan Hackney.
Blake MacDonald is also a chance to debut along with fast bowler Ryan Hadley, with Sean Abbott unavailable due to Australian ODI duties and Trent Copeland now retired.
Moises Henriques will replace Patterson as captain for the Karen Rolton Oval match.
NSW Squad: Ollie Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley, Moises Henriques (capt), Hayden Kerr, Blake MacDonald, Jason Sangha, Chris Tremain.
