Throughout 2021 there was a clear plan to integrate Rachin Ravindra into the Blackcaps Test squad and cultivate his obvious talents at the highest level. After playing in the Bay Oval Test against Bangladesh, Ravindra then made way for Canterbury's Daryl Mitchell in the ongoing Hagley Oval Test and this provides a lovely juncture to tap into the opening stanza of Ravindra's international career.

The first note about Ravindra is the most important as the Wellington youngster made his Test debut almost exactly three years after his First-Class debut and this is the opposite of Devon Conway, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Ajaz Patel and any other new Blackcaps Test cricketer. Even though Kyle Jamieson appeared to burst on to the scene in a blaze of herb, he made his FC debut back in 2014 with Canterbury and endured a bunch of injury-riddled seasons before commanding Test selection.

Aotearoa's Blackcaps became World Test Champions through their experience and this flowed on to the next tier of lads who had to wait their turn (Matt Henry stays ready for his turn). In waiting for their turn, these lads stacked up reps in domestic cricket and gained greater understanding of themselves as blokes and how their respective 'games' can translate to international cricket. Ravindra has been through the process of going to England as part of the Test squad and he has been through the NZC development washing machine, making Ravindra a unique cricketer in the wider Test mix.

Let's narrow this down to Aotearoa spinners. Ish Sodhi made his Test debut one year after his FC debut and such a swift promotion is not conducive to consistent development in Test cricket; Sodhi learned about longform bowling while playing his first few Tests. Patel on the other hand had multiple seasons taking 40+ wickets in the Plunket Shield before making his Test debut around 30-years-old.

For all the analytics and training methods that come with high performance, it's fairly obvious which route is better apart from out-liers. Mitchell Santner also got a swift promotion and while the Sodhi and Patel duo have consistently been among the leading spin wicket-takers in the Plunket Shield, Santner's rise to the Blackcaps felt like a celebration of how Santner looked on the cricket field. Santner played the first two Tests at Bay Oval and was replaced by Ravindra, serving up a funky comparison.

Mitchell Santner

FC Batting: 28.31avg.

FC Bowling: 47.39avg.

Rachin Ravindra

FC Batting: 36.26avg.

FC Bowling: 55.67avg.

The two blokes chosen to play the spin/all-rounder role average over 45 with the ball in FC and List-A cricket. Santner averages 87.63 and Ravindra averages 63.87 in LA, which amounts to Ravindra averaging 55+ FC, LA and Test cricket (three Tests). Fortunately for Ravindra, he is similar to Santner in that he looks like an exceptional cricketer. Unfortunately for Ravindra, he's similar to Santner in that his efficiency does not quite align with those appearances.

That worked out great for Santner as he has played 24 Tests while averaging 45.63 with the ball and 24.70 with the bat. So far, it's worked out great for Ravindra as well given that he has leap-frogged Santner bouncing off the same springboard that Santner bounced off to start his Test career. Ponder any of the bonkers stats or ideas you would refer to when trying to bump Santner out of the Test team and I'll raise those ideas with: in two of his four FC seasons, Ravindra has averaged 100+ with the ball (70+ overs in both seasons).

Of course, Ravindra is an opening batter for Wellington and his FC record suggests a talented youngster building into his domestic career. Ravindra is not commanding Test selection as an opener though and 31 FC games isn't enough to build a case when Young has stepped into that role and genuinely looks fabulous. This presents an awkward pocket where Ravindra is an opening batter who bowls spin, but he's not good enough to contend for the opening batter Blackcaps spot or play as a frontine spinner.

That is so similar to Santner that it's kinda creepy.

In his three Tests, Ravindra has six scores below 20 (shout out to 18* to save a Test draw in India) and has not taken a wicket in two Tests.

Ravindra's last 10 games of cricket have a nice mix of formats and locations; four T20I games all played in Asia, two Tests in India, one Test in Aotearoa, two Plunket Shield games and one Ford Trophy game. Ravindra has bowled in 12 innings during this stretch with the 3-wicket-haul in the second innings of the second Test vs India, five innings with 1 wicket and six innings with no wickets.

Batting in 15 innings, Ravindra has a knock of 70 in the Plunket Shield and 46 in the Ford Trophy. Ravindra also scored a 26 in the same game as his 70 and this gives Ravindra three scores over 20 in 15 innings or 12 innings with scores below 20.

None of this is to throw shade on Ravindra, these are merely the tales of a young cricketer learning about themselves and their cricket. The weird thing here is how similar Ravindra is to Santner, plus how the Sodhi/Patel lessons learned are currently biffed out the window. If we include Sodhi's FC record of 34.27avg and Patel's 31.64avg, a clear pecking order emerges as well as making it extra bonkers that Santner and Ravindra demand selection without really doing much demanding.

I'm confident that Will Somerville won't play many more Tests (48.26avg in Tests, 36.14avg in FC), but a hefty dose of common sense is present in how Somerville and Patel formed a nice overseas tandem; two veterans who are well prepared for the niggle of Test cricket.

Step outside the spin bubble and the same applies to our favourite batters. I came into this yarn wanting to assess the start of Ravindra's Test career and quickly realised that this was less about Ravindra and more about how Ravindra fits into this system. We have seen spinners thrown quickly into Test cricket struggle to perform and those who debut later in their careers succeed, plus we have ample evidence of batting excellence taking time to blossom.

All the blokes named around Ravindra here are 29-years-old or older. Ravindra must now battle to move away from his Santner similarities, to avoid the Sodhi treatment and take his Blackcaps opportunities in a role that is rather different to his regular domestic mahi. Ravindra may be a superstar who can brush all of this off and jack up big runs with lots of wickets, yet the odds aren't in his favour.

From a Blackcaps perspective such swift promotions don't correlate to winning. Ravindra has lost two of the three Tests he's played and this obviously isn't his fault, yet it does point to the re-calibration of expectations when young/inexperienced players get game time. Relying on Ravindra will be tricky and the Blackcaps can make up for this by easing him into favourable scenarios while giving him space to develop in domestic cricket.

It's no coincidence that Aotearoa won the WTC with an experienced squad capable of performing around the world. Every slither of experience lost shakes this up a wee bit (think BJ Watling/Tom Blundell) and this provides an intriguing period where balance between experienced plug-and-play types and selections based around potential will be crucial.

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