Surveying A Messy Decade of Blackcaps Test Spinnership
Rightio then friends. We’ve looked at the disparity between spin and seam in New Zealand conditions and it’s equal and opposite disparity in foreign conditions. We’ve also looked deeper into the general bastard of a time that spinners have had in Aotearoa lately, both from the lesser quality of spinners around the world and also the increasingly bland conditions that are offered up to spinners in this country. Not to mention there’s a kiwi batting deficiency against spin as well as a much less aggressive mindset towards spin bowling than you see from a lot of other nations (specifically Australia and India). It’s a big ol’ steamy casserole of causes.
All of which begs the question if it’s even worth picking a spinner in home Test lineups. It’d be a bold choice but then you could also argue that we barely play spinners anyway, they’re specialist fielders in first innings and it’s rare that there’s much help (or even need) for them later on. In the absence of a locked-in selection like Daniel Vettori, that spinning role, in home conditions, often becomes rather... shall we say: expedient. Hence why there’s been that preference for selecting them based on their batting since they often bat more than they bowl. The Blackcaps are on a three-year, 13-match unbeaten streak in home Tests and this is what their spin production looks like in that time...
There was that infamous stat where Blackcaps seamers had taken 100 consecutive wickets without spinners getting a single one, a streak that spanned four complete Tests and the first half of a fifth. But that was never very fair because it ain’t like the Blackcaps were getting whalloped in those matches. They were the ones doing the whalloping, unbeaten in 13 Tests and all that. And just look at those overs, the spinners hardly got a bloody chance. Nah here’s the defining aspect of that unbeaten home streak...
Trent Boult – 61 wickets at 22.39 average and 43.4 strike-rate
Neil Wagner – 59 wickets at 22.62 average and 42.8 strike-rate
Tim Southee – 57 wickets at 22.17 average and 45.4 strike-rate
Kyle Jamieson played both Tests against India and took more wickets in those two matches than Mitch Santner (or any other spinner) has across that entire 13-Test stretch. And yet... Santner may only have 8 in the five matches he’s played of those thirteen but he has an average of 29.25 and a ridiculously slim economy rate of 2.03 runs per over. He’s hardly damaging the Blackcaps’ prospects. He did have that one golden opportunity to bowl the team to victory against England last year and only took three wickets from 46 overs but even then Neil Wagner still came to the rescue in a Test match victory, no harm done. Just a missed chance to be the hero.
Santner’s problem, and the reason he now appears to be on the outer as the first choice spinner with Ajaz Patel picked ahead of him against India, is that unlike most spinners he’s not been able to improve on or even replicate his home numbers in foreign matches where spin bowling actually needs to carry the weight. His career numbers in Aotearoa are almost commendable, with 17 wickets at 34.52 a pop (255.0 overs). In away Tests however... 22 wickets from 369.2 overs with an average of 52.59. If spin bowlers are only a luxury in kiwi conditions then that kind of split is not exactly helping his cause - especially when he took 6 of those away wickets (at 28.00) in Zimbabwe. In three Tests in Australia he’s got an average of 104.00 and a strike-rate of 174.0... meaning he took a wicket exactly every 29 overs. In three Tests in India he averages 52.40 with a strike-rate only three balls worse (at 93.2) than what he does in Aotearoa but his RPO is a full run worse off at 3.37.
That’s rough as guts but this is a situation that goes way beyond poor old Mitch Santner, ever since Daniel Vettori retired (and even a bit before that) it’s been a wobbly one. The last five-for on home soil was taken by Jeetan Patel in December 2008; Jeets grabbed 5/110 in a match against the West Indies in Napier. Twelve years and counting. Only 16 five-fors have ever been taken by kiwi spinners in home conditions and six of those were by Dan Vettori. Only six of the 38 best bowling figures in an innings by spinners in this country have come from kiwis. Across the last decade, here’s what we’re dealing with...
Best Innings Bowling By NZ Spinners in NZ In The Past 10 Years:
Bruce Martin – 4/43 vs England (2013)
Kane Williamson – 4/44 vs England (2013)
Mark Craig – 4/53 vs Sri Lanka (2015)
Dan Vettori – 4/100 vs Pakistan (2011)
Bruce Martin – 4/130 vs England (2013)
Todd Astle – 3/39 vs England (2018)
That’s... a curious list, no doubt. Meanwhile here’s the other side of that coin...
Best Innings Bowling By NZ Spinners in Away Tests In The Past 10 Years:
Mark Craig – 7/94 vs Pakistan (2014)
Ajaz Patel – 5/59 vs Pakistan (2018)
Dan Vettori – 5/70 vs Zimbabwe (2011)
Ajaz Patel – 5/89 vs Sri Lanka (2019)
Dan Vettori – 5/135 vs India (2010)
Ish Sodhi – 4/60 vs Zimbabwe (2016)
You’ve also got 4-fors for Will Somerville, Mark Craig, Ish Sodhi, Mark Craig again, and Daniel Vettori. Also Martin Guptill once took 3/11 against Zimbabwe so shout out to that dude. Here’s the overall numbers for the past decade of Blackcaps spinners, including every bugger who has taken a tweaker wicket in that time. Brace yourselves for this right now...
Blackcaps Spinners May 2010-April 2020:
Mark Craig – 50 wickets @ 46.52
Ish Sodhi – 41 wickets @ 48.58
Mitch Santner – 39 wickets @ 44.71
Dan Vettori – 37 wickets @ 38.75
Kane Williamson – 29 wickets @ 40.62
Jeetan Patel – 28 wickets @ 53.25
Ajaz Patel – 22 wickets @ 33.31
Will Somerville – 15 wickets @ 32.46
Bruce Martin – 12 wickets @ 53.83
Todd Astle – 7 wickets @ 52.57
Martin Guptill – 5 wickets @ 50.20
Ross Taylor – 2 wickets @ 17.00
Jeet Raval – 1 wicket @ 34.00
Yikes. Okay. Now, Dan Vettori’s retired so scratch him from the discussion. This is about the drudgery that’s followed him. Other than him you’ve got to look quite deep there for the good averages who can stack up the numbers in any conditions.
Bruce Martin features a couple times on that home BBI list. Two four-baggers in the same 2013 series against England, his first two Tests in fact... he then got blanked in his third match and went to England and Bangladesh where it got worse. First two Tests he took 9 wickets at 29.22. His next three he took 3 wickets at 127.66 and that was the end of his international career.
Todd Astle hung around for ages and then retired at a time when his Test stocks seemed to be at their highest but so it goes. In eight years since his 2012 debut he played five matches, only once bowling more than twenty overs in an innings and that was in his final match at the SCG vs Aussie (2/111 from 32.0). His peak was a 3/39 in a winning cause in Aotearoa’s first day/night Test vs England at Eden Park. Limited opportunities and limited impact.
Mark Craig is an interesting one. At no point during his Test career did he look like a genuine Test player (aside from his blossoming batsmanship) but he certainly did some things. Top wicket taker over the last decade, who saw that coming? And in seven fewer Tests than Santner and two fewer than Sodhi. Thing is, 42 of those wickets came away from home, Craig only ever playing three home Tests. He averaged nice and consistent mid-40s both home and away, although he did take a 10-wicket haul in Sharjah against Pakistan once and that’s nothing to scoff at whatsoever... only Dan Vettori (three times) and John Bracewell (once) have 10-fors as kiwi spinners through the entire history of the damn sport (Craig’s 10/203 is the worst of that quintet but still).
Ish Sodhi debuted in 2013 and got a decent run as the main spinner for the next fourteen months or so but after a disappointing series away to Pakistan his Test average was hovering at 52.81 after 11 matches. He then re-established himself as a limited overs bowler and has remained a regular Blackcap in the T20 stuff but has only played in six more Tests over the last five and a half years. Two in Zimbabwe, one in India, one versus England (when he batted most of day five to save a Test) and then two in the UAE vs Pakistan. He took 14 wickets at 40.42 in those six matches. Sodhi has, in the last five years, emerged as a dominant Plunket Shield bowler and it’s easy to feel like he got his Test chance before he was ready and has suffered for that. Like Santner, he’s proven himself in shorter formats internationally but hasn’t put it together at Test level yet... though unlike Santner he hasn’t been given much chance lately. Then again, six matches isn’t nothing and he didn’t exactly demand further selections in those Tests, particularly in the UAE which was where Ajaz Patel and Will Somerville launched themselves onto the scene.
It’s pretty clear that Patel and Somerville have the best records on that list. Both came in and bowled beautifully in helping the Blackcaps to a series victory in the UAE, Patel in particular who took 5/59 in the second innings in Abu Dhabi. He also took a fiver in Sri Lanka and in five away Tests he has a wicket in every innings, averaging 28.50. Somerville only played the one Test against Pakistan but he took 4/75 and 3/53 and has been similarly efficient other than match figures of 1/135 against Aussie in Sydney. Very decent starts for the both of them... although it doesn’t stack up so much in the home stuff. Somerville has never played a home Test, he’s also never played as a lone spinner. Either Patel or Astle has also played in each of his four Tests. Ajaz has gotten to roll the arm over in kiwi conditions... and in three home Tests he’s bowled a total of 49 wicketless overs. Then again, New Zealand won two of those three and should have won the third but for rain so it’s not his fault he wasn’t needed. Still small sample sizes for both of them at this stage but you can’t argue with what they’ve done so far, especially not compared to their compatriot spinners.
Here’s the rub with Kane Williamson’s bowling: he doesn’t like to do it. 29 wickets at 40.62 in his career are very useful part-timer numbers and useful part-timer numbers mean that he’s better than almost all of our full-timer spinners. But that was all under other captains. Since Williamson himself became the skipper he has bowled just 21 overs in 32 matches, never more than five in a single innings, and has taken a grand total of zero wickets. Zero, zilch, nada. There’s been some drama with his action during all that and maybe that’s discouraged him because he’s actually got a solid track record. If he wasn’t his own captain then you’d be wondering why he hates his part-time offie who once took 4/40 against England so much. Kanos has bowled himself a tad more in ODIs as captain but even then he’s only taken the ball in seven of his last 41 one-dayers. Granted, his complete lack of Test wickets over the past four years might also suggest he’s simply not as good of a bowler since having to adjust his action a bit.
And as for Mitch Santner, he already got a bit of treatment at the start of this piece. In 22 Tests he’s only three times taken more than two wickets in an innings and only once has he taken five in a match (5/173 from 55/2 overs in India in 2016). Test average of 44.71 and that’s actually better than his first class average of 47.00. It’s not pretty... yet his performances in home matches have been decent. There’s no spinner in the last decade with a better average on Aotearoa soil. The problem for him is that while he can serve nicely in that complimentary role, he’s been worse than poor on his travels which is where we really need a spinner. What he can offer at home, another seamer can probably do even better. Colin de Grandhomme could act as a spinner for example. His medium pacers can tie down an end the way that Santner is often used (which, by the way, is a genuine weapon in limited overs form... it just doesn’t translate into batsman pressure in the long stuff).
If you really wanna get sneaky with it you could suggest that the best combination is Santner in home Tests and Patel in away Tests. Whether that’s feasible on a dressing room level is a different story though, it’s sort of telling both players they’re not fully trusted and it’d be a confusing dynamic for teammates. All of this debate, all it really adds up to is a messy situation caused by nobody doing enough to make the position their own. Hence the spinner’s role has been left to the whims and strange logic of the selection panel over the past ten years and, well, this has been the result.
Then again... Ross Taylor has averaged a Warne-esque 17.00 over the last decade. Maybe the solution’s been right there in front of us all this time.
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