Cricket: Long, winding road for Sodhi

Martin Guptill congratulates Ish Sodhi on taking a wicket in South Africa. Photo / AP

This year, Ish Sodhi has experienced a journey as unpredictable as his googly. Relegated to second-choice test spinner behind Mark Craig, he also missed selection on last month's national contract list as Northern Districts team-mate Mitchell Santner's reputation grows in the limited overs formats.

Sodhi has since seized his opportunity on the Zimbabwe tour to such an extent he was asked to stay on for the South African leg where he has played one of the two Twenty20 internationals and the first of the three one-dayers.

New Zealand's second ODI against South Africa is tonight in Potchefstroom.

With limited television coverage from the tour, it's hard to develop a complete picture of Sodhi's form. However, six of his eight wickets have been top-six batsmen and he's gone at less than the overall run rate in all but the first ODI against Zimbabwe.

With so much cricket on the Subcontinent, nurturing spin depth is a vital component to New Zealand's plans for world domination, especially as limited overs stalwart Nathan McCullum turns 35 next month.

Sodhi is 22, with 11 tests, four ODIs and four T20Is to his credit. Persevering with him in the PV (post-Vettori) era is wise, despite the rise of Craig (28) and Santner (23).

"I don't really see it as a competition yet," Sodhi says of the duel with Craig for what's likely to be a solitary test spot on seamer-friendly pitches this summer.

"I'm still trying to progress my game. Mark's done exceptionally well but I've made progress in the last six to seven months with my strength and conditioning."

On the ODI front, Santner's left-arm orthodox stock ball spins away from right-handers but Sodhi can do that, coupled with variations like a befuddling googly capable of convincing bat and pad to 'open sesame'.

He possesses a leg spinner's erratic gene on occasion as he works to generate tweak via his wrist movement. Regular matchplay appears to be breeding more consistency.

Responsibility for Sodhi's future also lies with the top-order batsmen. Too few runs limit the capacity to use a leg-spinner as an attacking weapon. The search for wickets can come with higher-risk deliveries.

Sodhi, who has struck every 16 balls and averages just 18.60 in his fledgling T20I career, hopes he's adding enough value.

"[Moving the ball away from the right-hander] can be a good weapon in limited overs cricket when they go after you. If the wicket's turning, it is difficult to get boundaries and sixes in particular.

"It's tough when batsmen come at you. It's not just about the skill set, you have to be smart with field settings and tactical awareness.

"I'm grateful Nathan McCullum's been on this trip because if you took my skill set and put his brain in my head, I think it's something that would hold me in good stead. I'd love to have that savvy."

Sodhi attributes his Champions League appearance last year, where he took eight wickets at Northern Districts' best economy rate (6.80) and average (19) combined with a strike rate of 17, as a type of epiphany.

"Winning the T20 competition at home enabled me to bowl against quality batsmen with 10-15 years' experience under international-type pressure and conditions. Often there were 45,000 people at the ground.

"I remember having a crack against Virender Sehwag. You can't often buy that sort of preparation in domestic cricket."

Sodhi has also inadvertently gleaned a menacing reputation after a blow to a sweeping Ross Taylor ahead of the third one-day international forced the batsman to have testicular surgery in Harare.

"It was a tough one, I saw him go down and it didn't look good. I grabbed him a bottle of water. I got a bit of stick but the boys were good about it. Ross said his family had asked who bowled it, he'd said 'Ish' and they all started laughing. Maybe boxes need to be made a bit stronger because if I'm doing that sort of damage at 85-90km/h, 140km/h won't be too comfortable."