BLACKCAPS Limited Overs Spin Sitch
Overlord Daniel Vettori, take a bow...
Mr Vettori sat comfortably on the throne as Aotearoa's Spin King, even as the Limited Overs Spin King. Despite not actually spinning the ball a whole lot for much of his career, Vettori was and will go down as the best spinner we have seen to this point. There's hope that someone will step up and demand a long stint on the Kiwi Spin King, taking Vettori's career and raising him one.
Todd Astle's recent inlcusion in the BLACKCAPS T20 squad to face Pakistan shows that we have spinning depth. Astle has been a staple of domestic cricket in Aotearoa for a number of years now, he was never really thought of getting another chance at international cricket though and has come into the BLACKCAPS equation very swiftly.
While Astle's inclusion shows that we have spinners to pick from, it also points to no spinner really putting their hand up, filling us with confidence that they are they next long-term spinner, taking over from Nathan McCullum.
McCullum's impending retirement leaves a hole in the limited overs formats, which Mitchell Santner looks the best bet in. Santner has shown many signs that he could be a job-doing spinner for the BLACKCAPS in any format, holding up an end and posing a threat while the seamers attack. Santner is however at the start of his career, so is Ish Sodhi and both have a long way to go before they can even contemplate wearing the crown.
That Sodhi and Astle have been selected in squads with Santner could be used as evidence of the need of a stand alone spinner. Sodhi and Santner played together in a few ODIs which offered a funky dual-spin threat while we will have to wait and see how Astle is used in these T20s against Pakistan.
A strong performance in the T20s could see Astle included over Sodhi in the ODI squad for three ODIs against Pakistan; 50-over cricket is where Astle has excelled recently so it makes sense that that door has been left open for him.
Santner's presence allows the BLACKCAPS to pick an attacking spinner, such as a leg-spinner in limited overs cricket. Sodhi did play as the lone spinner in the first T20 against Sri Lanka, but I'd suggest that Santner's left-arm spin is better suited to keeping things tight, dotting 'em up and building pressure while the leggy in either Sodhi or Astle makes the most of that pressure.
Offering quality in all three facets, Santner is the leading spinner, such is life when you are a good all rounder. Santner will more often than not be selected as the lone spinner in T20s and ODI cricket over the next few years, the elephant in the room though is the World T20 competition in India.
India means spin and as this is the major limited overs event in the short to mid-term future, it must be what the BLACKCAPS selectors have in mind. While the status-quo will be Santner's left-arm spin with a hefty pace attack, in spin-friendly conditions Santner's all round ability leave plenty of room for another spinner, basically a shoot-out between Sodhi and Astle.
There's far too small a sample size in internationals, so I'll take a peep at their domestic stats in List A and T20 cricket.
List A
Astle: 39 games, 32 wickets, average of 38.28, 5.37 rpo.
Sodhi: 42 , 52, 31.86. 4.86.
T20
Astle: 35, 18, 31, 6.88.
Sodhi: 35, 28, 30.21, 7.39.
There's not much separating Astle and Sodhi in either format, with Sodhi taking more wickets in domestic T20 cricket, yet Astle has more general cricketing experience which must help his economy. I don't envy the selectors at this stage as they'll have to make a tough choice and with Astle getting the nod for the T20s against Pakistan the ball is now in his court.
You could argue that it's not even as simple as that. Astle and Sodhi each took 7 wickets during the Super Smash (T20 comp) from a similar number of games (Astle 10, Sodhi 9) and this put them behind Luke Woodcock, Anton Devcich (both 9 wickets), Jono Boult (10), Tarun Nethula, Roneel Hira (both 11), Rob Nicol and Nathan McCullum (both 13).
Sodhi and Astle weren't close to being the best spinners in the local T20 competition, yet here they are effectively competing for a World T20 spot. You could make the argument that Devcich for example deserves more opportunities: 2nd highest Super Smash run-scorer plus 9 wickets, 5th highest Ford Trophy run-scorer plus an economy rate of 5.91 across 47 overs (only Tarun Nethula and Lachie Ferguson have bowled more).
The World T20 offers context to both the Pakistan and Australian limited overs series' before it gets underway in March and with the selection of Astle for the T20s against Pakistan, we've been given a curveball. Curveballs are fun though and watching how Astle performs will be one of a few sub-plots that will make this Pakistan series intriguing, especially as Pakistanis don't mind giving spinners a bit of tap.