Turn for the worse for test spinners
As legspinner Todd Astle and his Black Caps test team-mates wait for the rain to clear in Wellington today, Ish Sodhi and Ajaz Patel prepare to go head to head in Napier.
No prizes for guessing who of that spin trio will bowl the fewest overs in the next four days.
In part, that sums up the vexed issue of New Zealand spinners on home soil. In the Black Caps’ past four home tests their designated spinner – either Sodhi, Patel or Astle – has gone wicketless while the pacemen snared all 71 opposition wickets.
In Hamilton, Astle bowled 20 overs without success in New Zealand’s innings and 52 run victory over Bangladesh, his first test in nearly a year.
Meanwhile in the Plunket Shield, Sodhi bowled 67 for Northern Districts in Whangarei for match figures of 8-214. Auckland’s Will Somerville twirled down 54 overs in ND’s only innings, taking 4-141. And in Napier, Patel spun through 67 himself to snare 5-155 in the Central Stags’ innings victory over Otago.
It’s been two long years since a spinner was tasked with bowling New Zealand to victory at home. Jeetan Patel was that man, against South Africa as pitches in Dunedin and Hamilton were left dry and sluggish to negate the visiting pacemen.
Rain intervened with the Black Caps in a strong position in both tests,. Ironically on the bounciest pitch of the three in Wellington, South Africa’s leftarm spinner Keshav Maharaj tore through the hosts with a matchwinning six-wicket haul, his weapons drift and bounce.
Jeetan Patel, now retired from international cricket and playing for Wellington against Otago today, says our spinners are good enough but they will rarely feature in home tests.
‘‘When it comes to test cricket they want to produce the best wickets possible, and suit the seamers that we’ve got, and why wouldn’t you when you’ve got a swing attack like we do.’’
Certainly spin has been prominent in Plunket Shield cricket in recent seasons, with Ajaz Patel top wickettaker for the past three seasons and Astle finishing second in 2014 and 2015 when Canterbury won titles.
‘‘Whether that’s our ability to play spin . . . especially domestically sometimes you question it and should we be playing on more spinner-friendly wickets to get even better.’’
Contrast that with the role test spinners are asked to play at home; the occasional over before an interval or before the new ball is taken, on pitches that don’t turn or deteriorate.
Ajaz Patel starred in the 2-1 series win over Pakistan when it turned, as did Somerville in the third test. Astle was picked for this series after a long injury layoff, his legspin seen as a more attacking option.
Said Jeetan Patel: ‘‘That last innings in Hamilton was tough for everyone but they managed to get the result and Boulty got the five-wicket bag to win it. You can’t deny the fact that Kane [Williamson] is going to lean to his seamers first.
‘‘Maybe it’s a confidence thing that 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.
It’s been two long years since a spinner was tasked with bowling New Zealand to victory at home.