Young gun Mitchell Santner is fast losing his appeal and promising leg spinner Ish Sodhi remains in the reserves of: "Don't call us, mate, we'll call you."
The great divide flies in the face of overwhelming statistics that tweakers rule, even on benign batting strips.
Four of the top five four-day Plunket Shield domestic competition front runners are spinners - Central Districts Stag Ajaz Patel leads with 38 wickets, Auckland Aces leggie Tarun Nethula is next on 36, No 4 is Canterbury King leg spinner Todd Astle (25 wickets) and ND's Sodhi is fifth equal on 24.
It does pose the argument that perhaps batsmen in New Zealand are generally inept at playing spin, something which is reflected even in the Black Caps ranks when South African tweaker Keshav Maharaj claimed six scalps to scuttle the hosts within three days of the second test match in Wellington.
But, on the flip side, how do you justify the presence of blokes who are included in the equation to accumulate runs and then, hopefully, roll their arms to claim wickets but come up abysmally shy of both.
To champion the retention of a failed experiment on a loyalty card is tantamount to discrimination.
If anything, it comes across as a blatant excuse to resist change.
The hierarchy goes something like this - batsmen (wicketkeeping, part-time bowling make you more marketable), seamers, medium pacers and then spinners (if you're a leggie then all the best).
For the record, you always pick the best wicketkeeper to fit the portfolio and then anything he racks up with the bat is a bonus.
But I digress. I feel the pain of spinners religiously left in a heap or banished to domestic cricket as coaches continue to look for magic potions to turn their fortunes around on the international stage.
They are the blokes who roll their arms sometimes three times more overs than their quicker cousins but are the first to be dropped when the Black Caps go back to the drawing board.
Interestingly, Ajaz Patel has dispelled old adages such as "bringing in a spinner when the ball is scuffed".
India, in almost stunning the world in the drawn third test, chucked the shiny cherry to off-break merchant Ravichandran Ashwin and orthodox leftie Ravindra Jedeja with devastating effect in Australia's second dig this week.
Ajaz, traditionally considered second fiddle to Marty Kain in the Stags' mix, also this summer dispelled any myths surrounding the selection of spinners as white-ball or red-ball specialists, almost in the mould of "waiting to see what the pitch does" in confirming a lineup.
You see, the new breed of spinners have to have every trick of the trade at their disposal within a four-over spell, thanks to the hit-and-giggle format.
With four five-wicket bags in first-class cricket this season, Ajaz would have been hogging the sport headlines for international selection but, alas, he isn't a speed merchant.
Conversely, when a spinner is deemed ineffective seldom is his potential revered in the manner in which Tom Latham's lack of form was played out this week.
The return of left-arm seamer Trent Boult is deserving but baffling that Tim Southee's dropping in the opening test in Dunedin was turned into a national mourning and yet the right-armer's death bowling, even in the white-ball format, is way off the mark.
South African captain Faf du Plessis is entertaining the thought of a spin attack of six-test Maharaj, seven-test-old off spinner Dane Piedt and part-timer JP Duminy.
Du Plessis even forecast Sodhi's inclusion on a spinner-friendly Seddon Park this Saturday.
Santner and Sodhi must be persevered with, akin to the Proteas with Maharaj and Piedt, for the sake of New Zealand cricket's future if not immediate returns.
In a discriminatory structure that champions individual values dressed up as a team one, it's easy to rationalise limited spaces for the undeserving by twisting unlimited variables to encroach on the quota of the marginalised.
