With all due respect for the fans down in Napier who had to sit through yesterday's kerfuffle, I really couldn't care less about the dramas via Mother Nature that impacted the second Chappell-Hadlee ODI. We live in a country where hosting a sporting event is a difficult concept for the 'experts' to understand and every event is riddled with over-priced this or that, silly security and just a lack of common sense. So for puddles of water to mean no-play down in Napier, is nothing new.

Take it as a friendly reminder that we're a bit dumb when hosting sporting events in Aotearoa. 

What has caught my eye in the aftermath of that was the inclusion of Ish Sodhi in the Blackcaps team for the third ODI. Not so much the fact that Sodhi was named to join the squad, this is more about Gavin Larsen once again serving up some weirdness. When dropping the news that Sodhi got the called up, Larsen gave me a few examples of a way of thinking in kiwi cricket that I see as holding kiwi cricket back and playing within parameters that we've historically operated in.

"We wanted the option of two specialist spinners for this match and it's a venue that Ish has had some success in at in the past. In the context of New Zealand conditions, it's rare to use two frontline spinners. Mitchell Santner's our frontline spinner and we saw his class at Eden Park so it's hard to squeeze Ish in alongside him, but he's a massive part of our plans."

In Aotearoa, we tend to roll out seamer after seamer and that generally means that any Blackcaps team playing ODI or Test cricket in Aotearoa can only have one 'specialist' spinner with the rest of the bowling attacking made up of seamers. Larsen has basically told Sodhi that he's only getting picked because it's arguably the most spin-friendly pitch in Aotearoa, that this is Sodhi's domestic home ground must also come into that equation ... oh and the last ODI Sodhi played in Aotearoa was in Hamilton, against Australia where he won Man of the Match honours.

The idea that the Blackcaps can only play with one specialist or frontline spinner, is the problem though. If Sodhi and Santner are bowling equally as well as each other, then there's no reason why the can't be in the team together, especially as Santner is more of a defensive spinner and Sodhi is more of a weapon. Instead of thinking about how many spinners in the team, why don't adopt a mindset where we compare Sodhi (or Santner) to a seamer; is Sodhi a more threatening bowler than Tim Southee/Trent Boult/Lockie Ferguson?

Or is Santner a better all-rounder option than Jimmy Neesham/Colin de Grandhomme? 

Sodhi and Santner shouldn't just be competing against each other as spinners, if they emerge to be our best bowlers in general, then they should both be in the team. If the Blackcaps bowling attack looks much more threatening with Santner and Sodhi in it, then why should we worry about filling medium-pacer spots?

I've said numerous times that Sodhi has grown up bowling his leggies in Aotearoa, where the pitches are firm and Sodhi's height allows him to cause problems with his bounce. Remember that he's coming off an impressive stint in the BBL where he bowled on firm decks that help his skill-set. With that in mind, isn't Sodhi better suited to bowling spin in Aotearoa than he is in, say India, where two spinners are typically used?

This isn't about whether Sodhi is good enough or if he'll take key wickets and flip the game in favour of the Blackcaps - as he did last time these two teams played in Hamilton. This is about a very traditional view of Aotearoa's cricket team when they play in Aotearoa and perhaps now, we are moving into a time where we've simply got different resources. 

Maybe, just maybe it's a case of 'shout out Gavin Larsen'. Maybe he's figured it out, maybe not.