The petite Blackcaps squad to play against India has had six cuzzies added to it and well, we're back in the cycle of weirdness from Lesson. Only six players needed to be added to the Blackcaps squad and the selections of Matt Henry, Henry Nicholls, Colin Munro and George Worker are understandable, logical, which leaves us with Glenn Phillips and Todd Astle as the two funky talking points. I wish.

Ah, that's where the weirdness begins because as one mainstream media outlet/NZC PR department put it; "Larsen and head coach and chief selector Mike Hesson (Lesson) were true to their word about picking NZA form". This is very true to some extent as Worker, Phillips and Nicholls were the top three run-scorers in the ODI series from both teams. This is despite Aotearoa getting smoked and that's because the next five top run-scorers were Indians as India shared their runs around and Aotearoa only had Worker and Phillips knocking one-off cracking innings.

Scott Kuggeleijn was the best bowler from the 50-over series (18.42avg) and Lockie Ferguson wasn't too far behind (19.40avg), although Matt Henry's glorious form in this series saw him selected (43.33avg). Wickets were hard to come by in the four-dayers and Aotearoa got torched, so all the stats were pretty bad but Kuggeleijn, Munro, Seth Rance and Lockie Ferguson all took 2+ wickets in that series, while Henry was the only kiwi seamer who didn't take a wicket.

That could be via Henry being barely used as he only bowled 9 overs in just one game, while all those other bowlers bowled 10+ overs, Kuggeleijn and Ferguson bowled over 20 overs. Henry bowled the most overs of this group in the 50-overs series though and still wasn't close to Kuggelieijn or Ferguson.

I don't mind Henry, but that doesn't smell like picking players based on Aotearoa A form to me. I'm just playing within the boundaries that Lesson are giving themselves and they're being silly about it.

It doesn't seem like much weight was given to the four-day form and that's somewhat understandable as NZC are on their 'fuck Test cricket' journey, so Tim Seifert's two ducks in two innings during the one-day series wouldn't have helped his cause. Yet Seifert did have the highest average of all kiwi batsmen in the four-day series (51avg) and while Seifert didn't have the sexy half-centuries of Nicholls and Munro, he scored more runs than them and did so over the course of the series; Nicholls scored 100 runs, 94 of which came in one innings and Munro scored 78 runs, 65 of which came in one innings. 

I ain't saying that Seifert should have been selected over Phillips, I reckon there's room for both and this is where I find a major fault in Lesson's mindset. Given the lack of any context around ODI cricket, we should be solely concerned with building towards major tournaments and, after the Champions Trophy, there should be a focus on ensuring that 15-20 players are well versed in ODI cricket by the next World Cup. Lesson on the other hand flipped the Blackcaps ODI squad on its head for the Champions Trophy and showed zero forward-thinking, planning or any sign of building towards the CT. 

You could put Seifert in for any number of the current squad, that's your choice and I'd make a case that for the purpose of building depth, there may be more benefit in Seifert being there instead of Guptill/Latham, de Grandhomme, Munro, Astle, or even an established veteran. Remember that the purpose of getting Seifert in the squad is to get him around ODI cricket, maybe play some games, but mainly be in the squad and experience what it's like. There are a few blokes in this Blackcaps squad who won't play a game in this series, so at least give that spot to Seifert for development's sake.

Who knows what Lesson's plan with Latham and Phillips is, but there's no specialist wicket-keeper in that squad and Lesson has a terrible record with wicket-keepers. Let's start to groom a bloke to be the long-term option and Seifert scored runs in the harder format, when all other kiwi batsmen were crap.

Based on this building towards major tournaments idea, it's fairly obvious how I feel about Astle being selected over Sodhi, Sodhi who is essentially a yo-yo at this point and you could make a case that he's being mentally tortured by Lesson. Larsen highlighted Sodhi's fitness as an issue, which for starters is a cop-out reason based on nothing given that Sodhi was the only kiwi bowler to bowl over 30 overs in the four-day series; 47 overs to be exact and Aotearoa only bowled against India twice in the series.

It takes a lot more 'fitness' to bowl that many overs in the heat/humidity of India than it does bowling 34 overs in four 50-over games as Astle did, plus Sodhi maintained a level of success while battling through those mammoth spells as he finished with a 26.75avg.

So it's a 'blatantly false' in the fitness argument and Lesson is still infatuated with all-rounders, outlining that Astle's a better batsman than Sodhi. That didn't pan out so well at the CT though and Lesson are still making bowling decisions on who is the better batsman, even though Mitchell Santner can hold things down at No.7/8 and score a few runs. Sodhi had a duck in his one innings during the 50-over series, then again Astle had two ducks in his two innings during the four-day series. 

And since everyone likes to bring up Astle's domestic dominance, last summer Sodhi averaged 19.42 in the Ford Trophy while Astle averaged 32.33. 

In the Plunket Shield, Astle (26.48avg) wasn't too far behind Sodhi (25.92avg) but that ignores the dominance of Ajaz Patel, Tarun Nethula and Sodhi who all took 40+ wickets while Astle took 31. Ultimately though, will Astle be playing at the next World Cup? No. Simple.

Not only is Sodhi a better List-A bowler with Astle averaging 38.17 vs Sodhi's 30.45avg and not only was Sodhi better than Astle in the Ford Trophy last summer, Sodhi has far more upside than Astle. Sodhi and Santner should be playing as many games together ahead of the World Cup as possible, or they should be directly competing for the one spinning spot, either way they are the spinners who will be at their peak come World Cup time.

But again, Lesson don't have much foresight and just as they did nothing to build a squad for the Champions Trophy where the Blackcaps failed miserably, they have settled back into their groove with their first ODI squad since. No plan, no building towards major tournaments, not a whole lot of factual logic and some reasonably poor man-management. We're still in the Lesson era folks, which when combined with NZC's 'fuck Test cricket' journey is making for some incredibly frustrating times for kiwi cricket.

An alternative, forward-thinking Blackcaps ODI squad for this specific series: Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Glenn Phillips, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, George Worker, Ish Sodhi, Tim Seifert, Tom Bruce, Trent Boult, Scott Kuggeleijn, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Tom Latham. 

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