Turn for the worse for test spinners
Kane needs to start seeing more from these guys. You noticed after the UAE series that he was confident enough to throw the ball to Ajaz. That’s a natural thing; if you’ve got more confidence in one option you go to that first.’’
Jeetan Patel insists the spinners need confidence and plenty of overs under their belts, the latter now becoming an issue for Astle. Sodhi is the classic example and, as he tries to push his case for the second spinner’s berth behind Mitchell Santner at the Cricket World Cup, found his groove in Whangarei. It was also Santner’s first first-class game of the summer, after a long recovery from knee surgery.
Legspinner Sodhi fell out of test favour in the UAE and wasn’t required for the Bangladesh ODIs which seemed to put his cup spot in doubt behind Astle.
‘‘We’ve had a few chats recently, a few phone calls, more me being someone to talk to. It can get quite hard when you’re in the limelight for all these discussions that you can’t control,’’ Jeetan Patel said of Sodhi.
‘‘Ish is quite enjoying his red-ball cricket. He hasn’t played it for a long time and to get back into three or four games with ND and just hone his art a bit more and understand himself a bit. Set attacking fields, set defensive fields, make mistakes and start to believe in your own skill.
‘‘I certainly believe he’s a very good legspinner but totally different to Toddy. [Astle] gets the ball to go up, drift and spin; Ish is more direct into a length and gets the ball to go big the other way. They do the same art but both of them do it differently. At times you need different resources.’’
If Patel was a selector he’d take Santner, Sodhi and Astle to the World Cup, and he expects favourites England and India to be spin-heavy as usual.
But for now Sodhi and Astle are toiling away in very different environments, the former honing his craft and the latter becoming accustomed to the lot of a test spinner in New Zealand.