Could Mark Craig squeeze his way into the Blackcaps squad?

Yes Martin Gutpill failed to make the most of his warm up game against Mumbai and yes Luke Ronchi did manage to hit a century opening the batting while Guppy was kicking´back in the sheds. Ya know what else went down in this game? Well…

Mumbai used nine bowlers.

Mumbai had three centuries in their innings.

The Blackcaps also used nine bowlers.

Mitchell Santner batted at No.3 in the second innings.

Doug Bracewell batted at No.4 in the second innings.

Trent Boult batted at No.6 in the second innings.

And Mumbai used nine bowlers again, in that second innings.

Not much that went down in that warm up game, will come close to happening in any of the upcoming Tests. So while we can make a song and dance about Ronchi's innings and what it could mean for Guppy's spot at the top of the order, jumping to any sort of conclusions from this game would be a tad silly.

It's hard to imagine Mike Hesson - a coach who has showed immense faith in Guptill thus far - kicking Guppy to curb after a few cheap dismissals in a warm up game. I mean, Hesson won´t be judging Guptill on what he did in the same innings in which he promoted Santner and Bracewell that far up the batting line up. So don't expect Guppy to get cut for the first Test. I suspect we'll see Guptill given a Test or two in this series to put a score on the board and if he doesn't, then a bloke like Ronchi is there ready to go.

What I'm more concerned about was the work of Santner and Ish Sodhi, who both bowled 20 overs in the Blackcaps' only innings with the ball. This is the same innings that saw three Mumbai batsmen hit centuries, along with two half-centuries. Santner took 1/71 going at 3.55rpo while Sodhi picked up 2/132 and only Guptill's 8.40rpo was more than the 6.60rpo conceded by Sodhi.

This game was about players experiencing the conditions and just spending time playing a game of cricket in India, so there's no reason to be concerned about our young spinners just yet. The fact that they both bowled 20 overs is what this is all about, yet compared to the storyline regarding Guptill's form, this is a far more intriguing and influential facet of the Blackcaps team.

Whether Guptill scores runs or not, it won't really have a major impact on the performance of the Blackcaps in these Tests, we won't see any strong Blackcaps performances though without our young spinners chipping in with wickets and building pressure.

Adding intrigue to that is Mark Craig, who could very well feature in the team for the first Test given that Santner is playing as a legit all-rounder. Craig bowled 24 overs and took 1/82 going at 3.41rpo, bowling more overs and conceding the least runs-per-over of our three main spinners. Tim Southee's injury could be good news for Craig as well. Southee was likely to be a key figure with the ball as he's got plenty of experience in India and has done fairly well in India; averaging 29.66 over three Tests.

There's a decent chance that Craig and Sodhi could join Trent Boult and Neil Wagner as a four-pronged bowling group with Santner playing the role of the all-rounder. There's no reason why the Blackcaps shouldn't play three spinners, this is India after all and we've never really been in a position where we can roll out three Test-calibre spinners. This warm up game did however offer us a glimpse at just how difficult it will be for our spinners so don't expect success, we're just well equipped and that's a good start.