In a spin: Breaking down the Patel snub

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and makes it even clearer that Ajaz Patel should have played at Trent Bridge and Headingley. So how did it come to this, where the country’s top spin bowler was omitted, as the Black Caps lost the series 3-0 to England?

Before the first test I wrote Patel should miss out at Lord’s, usually a spinner’s graveyard, and play the last two, in the expectation England would prepare dry surfaces to help nullify the Black Caps’ pace attack. This is not an ‘I told you so’, but more a wider look into why Michael Bracewell was preferred.

What has hurt the Black Caps is the surfaces they play on, in New Zealand. The test pitches are green and made for the hosts to win test matches, which is fair enough because of the points the Black Caps can accumulate in the World Test Championship. The issue is the surfaces in Plunket Shield cricket.

What coach Gary Stead and fellow selector Gavin Larsen are looking for is a spinning allrounder (formerly Mitchell

Santner, and now Bracewell) who can play in every away test and the odd test at home. The out-andout spin bowler is becoming redundant everywhere bar the subcontinent.

At first-class level we need to create flat wickets from day one, bat-first wickets so every team has to pick a spinner and use them as wicket-takers instead of making up the over rate, or bowling a few before the second new ball.

Back to Patel. I can see the thinking behind Stead and captain Kane Williamson picking Bracewell, as the pace bowling unit has earned and deserves all the trust. With the history of Leeds, they would have been thinking ‘we need the runs on the board’, and deeper batting with the top order missing out this series.

It also showed how much they missed Colin de Grandhomme. England were never going to let Bracewell settle. His lack of bowling experience was exposed. He will learn from this.

Test cricket is about taking 20 wickets, and I believe Patel was one of the four best bowlers in that Black Caps side. This is someone who took 10-for in an innings against India just seven months ago.

We need to be patient, and whoever Stead picks as the spin bowling option, let’s give them some time instead of hanging them out to dry after a game or two. New Zealand has only two spin bowlers to take over 100 test wickets (Dan Vettori and John Bracewell), so it’s not our strong suit. I would like to see Patel get a good run and be an option for the home summer when England and Sri Lanka visit.

Before then, it’s a tough tour of Pakistan where you’d expect Patel will be front and centre.