I've been saying this forever. WI should go into these T20 games with pure spin and Dwayne Bravo as the chief "fast" bowler. I would even pack the test and ODI teams with four or three dedicated spin bowlers.
In T20s, guys like Taylor, Holder and Andre will just feed the modern batsman easy balls to slog.
I think the 3 spinners took everyone by surprise, and that's including India. It was a brave call by New Zealand and at the end of the day it paid off.
When picking that kind of strategy though, it can go either way and if India had of won that game then I've no doubt that the team selection would have been blamed by most people.
The match had an unexpected outcome. It was certainly brave of them to try 3 spinners. In fact it is surprising to think NZ had 3 top level spinners. Most of them never got the spotlight. Southee and Bold was a surprising omission.
Was the bowling from the spinners top level though, or was it just there day? I'm not saying they didn't bowl well because they did, but I'm yet to be convinced it wasn't just a good day for New Zealand.
I'd like to see how they go on now. If they perform like that in the next couple of games then I'll accept they'be got 3 top level spinners. Until then, I'm not so sure...
I must admit, of what I have seen of Santner so far, he has impressed me. He looks like he could be a future superstar in all formats of the game.
Ish Sodhi is the real wild card for me in this New Zealand team. Obviously he was aided by that pitch, but if he can continue to bowl those lines, he will do well and make New Zealand real title contenders.
