Will Todd Astle play another ODI for NZ? Serious question...

Man-management is a term that most of the best sports coaches share and it's something that doesn't appear at the forefront of Lesson's playbook. Mike Hesson is the Blackcaps coach, Gavin Larsen is the big selector chief and I include Larsen any time I praise or am critical of selections because Larsen is the voice, to the extent where Larsen speaks about team/squad selections more than Hesson.

There were a few points of interest from the Blackcaps win over England in the first ODI, yet none more funky than the inclusion of Ish Sodhi in the playing XI. I have consistently highlighted examples of poor man-management from Lesson and Sodhi has often been on the receiving end as he is rarely given an opportunity to play consistent ODI cricket; Sodhi is the number tahi victim of the Lesson yo-yo.

And the yo-yo was back in full force with Sodhi's inclusion. Sodhi's journey with the Blackcaps seems to be to be a prime example of how not to manage a young, uniquely gifted leggy and it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that the mis-management of Sodhi could play a role in any of his struggles at international level - of which I don't think there have been many.

This is bigger than isolating the mis-management of Sodhi though as in a very similar fashion to how Lesson made an absolute shambles of preparing for the Champions Trophy, Lesson has made a shambles of best-using either Sodhi, or Todd Astle this summer. Let's slide back to the start of the summer when Astle was promoted to the Blackcaps ODI squad ahead of Sodhi because Lesson A) went a wee bit overboard with Rahul Dravid's praise of Astle - taking wickets in India - and B) celebrated Astle's batting/fielding as being the crucial.

As crazy as those reasons are, fair play. I'm of the opinion that Sodhi has a far higher ceiling as a wicket-taking option than Astle and if Dravid caught Sodhi on a good day, he'd make the same comments about Sodhi; chances of Sodhi having such a day are a lot higher than Astle. Astle was selected ahead of Sodhi and not only did Astle then get severely limited opportunities to impress, Astle did do pretty damn well in those limited opportunities.

Playing in 6 ODIs this summer, Astle took 7w @ 21.42avg/5.35rpo and the strangest thing was that Astle only bowled 28 of a possible 60 overs. In those 6 games, Astle bowled 5+ overs in just 2 of them and that's somewhat understandably given the lack of batting impetus from West Indies and Pakistan, but 28 overs as the 5th/6th bowling option felt as though Astle was an after-thought.

Which has me wondering what Astle did wrong. As much as I prefer Sodhi being in the team, Astle did reasonably well in limited opportunities, well enough to at least be given a crack against stronger opposition. Instead, Sodhi appears as injury cover and then gets a start ahead of Astle. Astle may have not been available via injury; Astle was rocking the bib on the sidelines and generally acting as part of the squad in Hamilton though, not what I'd expect a bloke who was unavailable due to injury to be doing.

What happens now will be of greater interest as the fact that Aotearoa tend to roll with two spinners at Seddon Park and remain close-minded to two spinners regardless of conditions, thus picking the best bowlers, also influences matters. Sodhi took his fairly standard dose of 2w and as an attacking leg-spinner, boundaries will always be hit off of Sodhi; his 6.30rpo is offset by having 30 dot-balls and only Tim Southee bowled more dots (33).

Sodhi took two important wickets in dismissing the England skipper Eoin Morgan and then Moeen Ali just as Ali was building into a late-innings onslaught. I view that as Sodhi taking his chance and there's little to suggest that Sodhi should now make way for Astle, or make way for a seamer to come in. Overall, I view this as being Aotearoa's strongest bowling attack which includes the balance offered by Colin Munro and Colin de Grandhomme.

Whatever happens with Sodhi or Astle, this is Lesson's poor man-management at it's finest. After barely getting a crack despite being in the playing XI this summer, Astle's wondering what he has done wrong or what he must do to get another chance and you can't blame Sodhi for feeling slightly/immensely frustrated if he loses his spot. Ideally, players will be put in the best mental and physical positions to perform their best. Over the past 18 months though, somehow Lesson has continually conjured up situations that lead to players being mis-managed.

Most of the time and in this instance, these are cases of Lesson creating mis-management scenarios and not due to any wrong doing of the players involved.

The same goes for Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry, neither of whom has been given the luxury of consistent playing time at this level. Neither has put in performances that warrant being dropped and they both live by the Lesson yo-yo, meaning that if they are promoted to the playing XI in this series, I doubt they'll play in the following game.

This is all good in Aotearoa, against weaker opposition. However it resulted in a horrible Champions Trophy result and is likely to leave the Blackcaps with a muddled group heading into the World Cup. With that in mind I'm intrigued to see what/if any changes are made for the next game and throughout this series.

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Peace and love 27.