Tom Latham picked him after a year but NZ bowler doesn’t bowl until 30th over, commentators baffled; ‘Why pick him?’

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Commentators during the ongoing India vs New Zealand Test match in Mumbai were left confused by the decisions made regarding Ish Sodhi, who was brought into the XI as a replacement for Mitchell Santner for this final Test match.

Sodhi was expected to be one of New Zealand’s two frontline spinners for this matchup in Mumbai, alongside Ajaz Patel, but for the initial part of India’s innings it seemed as if he was a third option behind Patel and Glenn Phillips.

In fact, even Rachin Ravindra received the ball ahead of Sodhi, bowling the final over of day one, with the leg-spinner not bowling for the entirety of India’s 20 overs on the first day.

Sodhi is playing his first Test match in over a year, but seemed to be the third choice. However, with Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant finding joy against Phillips and Patel, scoring at a good rate on the morning of day two, Sodhi was brought in as a change only in the 30th over.

Sodhi finds success with Pant wicket

Sodhi’s introduction stemmed the run flow to a certain degree, as the leg-spin and ability to turn the ball both ways introduced another element to the batters to think about. Pant reached his half-century at over run-a-ball, but was growing visibly frustrated after Sodhi’s lengths slowed him down and presenting a couple of opportunities to the Black Caps.

The Kiwi leg-spinner then went on to have the first breakthrough of the day for the visitors, as a wrong-un caught Pant in his crease, with the umpire judging the Indian wicketkeeper LBW and the DRS showing it to be umpire’s call.

While Sodhi’s numbers in Test cricket are fairly middling, with an unimpressive average and just over 50 wickets in the format, he has the opportunity to possess a threat to India in a similar fashion to Santner in the Pune Test match. While Santner was New Zealand’s hero of that match, he was ruled out of the Wankhede Test due to injury, forcing Sodhi to step in in an emergency role.

With Kuldeep Yadav also not included in India’s squad, Sodhi is the only wrist-spinner on show for either of the teams in Mumbai. India grow closer to New Zealand’s first innings total, with Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja at the crease.

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