However, Sodhi has answered the call. He was initially only there for the Zimbabwe leg, but when Ross Taylor was invalided home by an injury, Sodhi stayed on.
Not exactly replacing like with like, but Sodhi has done a good job, and raised questions about how he might fit into the mix for the home limited-overs season when NZ play Sri Lanka and Pakistan in short form matches.
Which leaves the seamers, and you can ink in Doug Bracewell and Adam Milne, assuming fully fit, to start.
Milne has bowled with zip and penetration, taking four wickets at 22 in the first two games against South Africa. But Bracewell also caught the eye in the eight-wicket, series-levelling win in Potchefstroom at the weekend.
It was his first ODI for 25 months, and his eighth in all.
He is 25 next month and after a chequered career should be coming into his prime.
In the estimation of New Zealand's bowling coach, Dimitri Mascarenhas, he could comfortably have won player of the match for his career-best three for 31 off 10 overs, had Guptill not carried New Zealand home with his ninth ODI century.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic about how he's gone about his business," Mascarenhas said.
"He works hard on and off the field, and to come in and bowl the way he did was very pleasing."
This will be New Zealand's 29th ODI this year. They have won 20 of them.
Victory will round off a second consecutive ODI series win in South Africa, and that's no small feather.
