A day in which a Blackcaps squad is released is usually a fine day as I get to write about it and dissect the smart decisions, or more recently the confusing ones. Yesterdays saw three squads named with a Blackcaps T20 and ODI squad along with an Aotearoa XI team to face South Africa in a T20 game tomorrow.

I'll elaborate on the Aotearoa XI in the closing paragraphs, although it's important to note how dumb a 'tour' T20 game is. Here I am trying to figure out the importance of international T20 games and instead of seeing our young brigade of cricketers face off against South Africa in a 50-over contest, we are left to muse over a T20 game that will offer little insight into the players named.

That Aotearoa XI does however include Ross Taylor and if you can't smell the funky smell that has been oozing from Gavin Larsen's pores this summer (regarding Taylor specifically - he's got a few confusing matters that he's conjured up) then bleh. Funnily enough, I couldn't care less that Taylor has not been selected for the Blackcaps T20 team but that Taylor has been selected in the Aotearoa XI for a T20 game is just weird.

I don't care that Taylor hasn't been selected for the Blackcaps T20 team because, well, I don't care for international T20 cricket. Besides robbing Taylor of being paid, there's no reason why he or our nation's very best cricketers should play non-World T20 international T20 games.

So yeah, who cares about the T20 squad.

As for the ODI squad, the main talking points are; Ish Sodhi and Luke Ronchi's inclusions which have come at the expense of Colin Munro. Martin Guptill returns, although there's no surprise in that.

Sodhi has been in fine form since returning to play Ford Trophy cricket and as the leading spinner in terms of wickets, Sodhi deserves a nod alongside Mitchell Santner as a spin-duo. I've harped on about that for a while now and I definitely think there is value in playing two frontline spinners, but the Blackcaps are also coming up against a strong South African batting line up whom I suspect will be looking forward to the standard diet of kiwi medium-pace. 14 wickets @ 19.42avg/5.03rp, finishing 2nd to Scott Kuggeleijn in wickets and doing so while only bowling in six innings' means that Sodhi has demanded selection and game time.

The yo-yo selection policy deployed for Sodhi is also evident in the return of Ronchi and the dropping of Munro, heck you could extend it out to Tom Blundell who has slipped back into pack and how that could influence the confidence of Tom Latham as well. Latham has shown signs of quality glove-work in his opportunities for Canterbury and Aotearoa in that role and while he hasn't quite enjoyed the runs he'd want, form comes and goes. If he's a wicket-keeper/opening batsman, he's an all-rounder who can cover up a lack of runs with the options that his wicket-keeping offers.

But, now Ronchi's back in the mix. Ronchi hit scores of 31, 22 and 63 in three Ford Trophy games and those first two scores came with Ronchi striking at over 100sr. Ronchi's last three innings for the Blackcaps (two ODI's, one T20) yielded scores of 5, 35 and 0 so I'd put his case for selection as 'reasonable'. The decision now for Mike Hesson and Kane Williamson is whether Ronchi's batting is better than the options that having Latham keep-wicket offers; the tools in this Blackcaps squad are better suited to having Latham as the wicket-keeper, especially as it could allow Sodhi and Santner to play together with a full seam attack.

Munro is probably a bit unlucky and there's not a whole lot of faith being showed here, again pointing to the yo-yo nature of many selections. Colin de Grandhomme is still in the squad despite not doing much recently and while he's more of an all-rounder than Munro, it does seem strange that a player's opportunities in the starting side are cut short while a certified 'depth player' in de Grandhomme is kept in the squad.

When you consider that Munro only put up scores of 2 and 3 against Australia before hitting 62 in his return to the Ford Trophy (as well as taking 2/28), Munro did exactly what we want from our Blackcaps as he went back and scored domestic runs. If you have a tough international series and then score runs in your one Ford Trophy game, you'd kinda expect that you've done enough to earn a bit of faith.

If you win a series against Australia, you'd kinda expect the same squad (taking into account injuries etc) to be rolled out for the next series.

But we've come to expect this from the Blackcaps selection panel.

As for this Aotearoa XI T20 team, you can't really view it as anything other than a place-holder team that houses players not involved in the Blackcaps T20 side and young blokes who kinda deserve selection. Auckland's Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman are clear talents who caught the eye in Super Smash cricket while Northern Districts' Zak Gibson only played three Super Smash games (3 wickets @ 27avg/9rpo) and Canterbury's Henry Shipley didn't play any Super Smash games.

Otherwise, the Aotearoa XI isn't overly interesting. The bloke to watch out for will be ND all-rounder Daryl Mitchell who has shown that he can contribute with bat and ball in all three formats, with 152 Super Smash runs @ 30.40avg/124.59sr this summer. Having hit three half-centuries in eight Ford Trophy games along with at least a wicket in all eight of those games make Mitchell an interesting prospect.