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In his early test days, Iain O'Brien was written off as a stop gap until someone better came along.
His first four tests produced just five highly expensive wickets.
But his efforts into a stiff northerly in the second test against Bangladesh at the Basin Reserve were impressive, even allowing for the calibre of the opposition.
In doing a sterling job in demanding conditions in the first innings, O'Brien gave the selectors a vote of thanks for sticking with him after an ignominious opening to his career. They in turn are likely to reward him in March.
New Zealand's players have a diet of Twenty20 and ODIs in the coming weeks, but O'Brien, barring a mishap, should be marking out his run-up at Seddon Park, Hamilton for the first England test starting on March 5.
The 31-year-old went for 13 in his first over on Saturday, but then buckled down. It wasn't a knock-your-socks-off performance but he bowled a tight line, got movement off the pitch and despite no luck with two catches put down, finished with three for 34 off 15 spirited overs.
He followed that with a steady two for 23 off 11 overs in the second, and enjoyed no luck in the match, with his Wellington teammate Matthew Bell dropping three catches off him.
Bangladesh were desperately ordinary, but still it was eye-catching work, and earned high marks from his captain. "For the Basin, where we know it's going to blow a gale, we've got a guy we can rely on to do a job," Daniel Vettori said.
"He stepped up again [in the second innings]. Unless you've done it you don't appreciate how hard it is. He bowled fast and he bowled well."
With James Franklin gone for the summer, Shane Bond seemingly India-bound and a question mark over Mark Gillespie's dodgy left shoulder, O'Brien has eased any selectorial worries over the No 3 seamers job.
"It was easily my best performance for New Zealand in terms of consistency and return," he said of his first innings display in Wellington. "It's quite rewarding.
"There's always pressure on me at the moment. But I'm a more consistent bowler now. I'm more mentally with it. That's probably the biggest thing."
His 50 first-class games for Wellington, since his debut in 2000-01, have produced 177 wickets at a tidy 24.75. So he's been round the game long enough to have built up a decent amount of cricket wisdom.
That will be needed against an England batting lineup - Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood for starters - who are made of significantly sterner stuff than the matchstick men of Bangladesh.
And O'Brien is relishing his cricket. He seems to be a cricketer who knows he must take every chance, that he's not one of those who'll be given countless chances to justify a selectorial belief that he'll come good given time.
His first two tests against Australia in 2005 produced two wickets at 98 apiece.
He's now taken 12 wickets in seven tests, at a far better, but still only average 42.08 each. Still, he's on the up and up. England awaits.
