It creates a more fitting test farewell and makes his comments more prescient after visiting the New Zealand dressing room on the second day of the drawn match in Dubai.
"It's still exhilarating. It's a familiar feeling and one I haven't experienced for a while but it's still an exciting one."
With New Zealand set to field a rare three specialist spinners in their attack, Vettori would get a chance to play in a pivotal test given Pakistan are up 1-0 in the three-match series.
New Zealand has only beaten Pakistan in away tests twice, in 1969 and 1996, both at Lahore. A drawn series against the world's No.3 ranked side would be a notable achievement.
Another cap would see Vettori become the outright record-holder for New Zealand test appearances, which he holds on 111 with Stephen Fleming (Vettori's other test, his 112th, came for the World XI against Australia in 2005). He will move to second behind Bert Sutcliffe (18 years and 72 days) for longest New Zealand career. The opening day will be 17 years and 295 days since he debuted against England at the Basin Reserve.
The gist of his role will be as a bowling all-rounder. Circumstances permitting, his workload will probably be capped at 10-15 overs per innings; not much more than a one-dayer. Ish Sodhi, Mark Craig, Trent Boult and Tim Southee are expected to complete the majority of the work.
At this stage Vettori's appearance will be a one-off cameo. Unless there's drastic global warming New Zealand will never play three spinners at home in the foreseeable future and he's unlikely to be on another New Zealand 'A' tour in such close proximity. The 35-year-old has also stated he doesn't want to hinder the development of 22-year-old Sodhi or 27-year-old Craig.
This is 'needs-must'; an SOS. The pitch has the sheen of glazed pottery and anyone who can find a live blade of grass either has X-ray vision or is telling porkies.
A quality slow left-arm orthodox spinner like Vettori might find some purchase out of the footmarks once the pitch shows signs of turn, like in the first over on the opening day.
Examples of New Zealand spinning trios in away tests during the last 30 years;
1) John Bracewell/Evan Gray/Stephen Boock - vs Pakistan, Hyderabad 1984
Lost by 7 wickets, combined for 11-355.
2) Boock/Bracewell/Vaughan Brown - vs Australia, Sydney 1985
Lost by 4 wickets, combined for 8-307.
3) Bracewell/Gray/Dipak Patel* - vs Australia, Adelaide 1987
Match drawn, combined for 2-235.
4) Bracewell/Gray/Chris Kuggeleijn - vs India, Bangalore,1988
Lost by 172 runs, combined for 4-331.
5) Daniel Vettori/Paul Wiseman/Mark Priest - vs Sri Lanka, Colombo 1998
Lost by 164 runs, combined for 10-241.
* Patel was picked as a specialist batsman who spun a bit, before his latent spin talent was discovered.
ANDREW ALDERSON TRAVELLED TO THE UAE COURTESY OF EMIRATES
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