Oh the shock, granted most of the shock was due to the bloke who was left out of the Blackcaps team for the first Test against South Africa but the general idea of playing two spinners in a Test, in Aotearoa sent funky ripples throughout the land. Not only do we lean towards pitches that help the seamers, we haven't really had the cattle to play a spin-duo.

None of this should be a surprise though given how dominant spinners have been in the Plunket Shield. The bloke dubbed by some as Aotearoa's No.1 spinner, Jeetan Patel has enjoyed a swift promotion back into the Blackcaps set up and in very general terms he is the massive winner out of all of this spinning stuff. What's weird here is that there are four spinners with more wickets than Patel in the Plunket Shield this summer and of those four spinners, Ajaz Patel (CD/28.15avg), Todd Astle (Cant/20.52avg) and Ish Sodhi (ND/26.86avg) have better bowling averages than Patel's 28.31.

Even Tarun Nethula's 27 wickets (32.29avg) is considerably more than Patel's 19 wickets and while Nethula has the worst average of those spinners, only Ajaz Patel has more wickets (33).

Of course dummies, this isn't a one-off and a look at last season's Plunket Shield stuff reveals the same trend. Ajaz Patel (43 wickets @ 33.69avg) and Tarun Nethula (39 wickets @ 29.15avg) dominated, while Todd Astle was in the mix as well (35 wickets @ 25.34). Jeetan Patel obviously got in on the act as well (32 wickets @ 34.31), however the bloke enjoying the spotlight right now was at the back of this spinning pack with Ish Sodhi taking 22 wickets @ 29.22avg.

Whatever your opinion is, Jeetan Patel is playing Test cricket for Aotearoa right now after finishing the 2015/16 season with the highest/worst bowling average of our best spinners and now only has Nethula behind him in the ongoing 2016/17 season (remember Nethula has almost 10 more wickets that Jeetan Patel).

Sodhi's name is constantly tossed up like a slow leggy as a spinner who should get more opportunities and while that's fair enough given his success in domestic cricket, that view is very much a lazy view of people who have seen Sodhi bowl in international cricket and don't dig deeper on the domestic scene. Last season Astle finished with an average of 25.34 while Sodhi finished with 29.22avg, this season Astle is rolling along at 20.52avg vs Sodhi's 26.86.

This simply highlights a fairly confusing spin situation and mate, if you thought it was confusing on a Blackcaps level where we are trying to suss out whether Jeetan Patel or Mitchell Santner is the guy to operate as a lone spinner (the more spinners the better!) then shit gets crazy when you dive into Plunket Shield stats. On top of that, you have the sheer volume of wickets from Ajaz Patel and Nethula, which deserves mention even though neither is mentioned in any Blackcaps conversation.

Last season, only two bowlers took 10 wickets in a match; Ajaz Patel and Nethula.

This season, only three bowlers have taken 10 wickets in a match; Ajaz Patel, Nethula and Kyle Jamieson - who is a seamer.

Ajaz Patel and Nethula have already gone back to back in taking 5 wickets in three games in each season. They were the only spinners to do so last season (Lockie Ferguson also had three 5-wicket-games) and with a few games to go this season, they are both sitting on three 5-wicket-games already. Scott Kuggeleijn has two 5-wicket-games, while Astle is the only other bowler on two.

That should spark some debate as to who really is our best spinner so leave some comments about that.

When you consider the usage of these spinners, y'all should probably re-assess how you view spin in Aotearoa. Ajaz Patel and Nethula take so many wickets because they are good at their craft and the bowl a lot of overs (Ajaz bowled 399 overs last season and could sneak up over 400 this season), plus in either season, three of the top-five wicket takers have/are spinners; if Kyle Jamieson doesn't feature for Canterbury much for the remainder of this season then there's every chance that Sodhi climbs into the top-five and that four of the top-five wicket-takers are spinners.

But you're surprised by the idea of playing two spinners?

It's clear the spinners are enjoying success in domestic cricket, a combination of pitches that offer some assistance, spinners who have the required skills and captains who really trust their spinners. Given their dominance, we should expect to see more spinners used at Test-level and if four of our country's best wicket-takers in Plunket Shield cricket are spinners, it's logical that spinners are given greater opportunities in Test cricket.

We've always had medium-pace seamers and they loved the seaming decks offered in domestic cricket around Aotearoa, so that was reflected in the national team. Times have obviously changed, it just doesn't feel like the typical kiwi view towards spin has.