Cricket: Spinner's learning curve on sharp rise

New Zealand spin bowler Ish Sodhi is keen to test himself against some of the world's best batsmen. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Ish Sodhi's development as a test spinner will make its sharpest climb in the next 10 days.

Since making his debut in Bangladesh in October, Sodhi has made encouraging progress. No one's fooling themselves; at 21 he has a power of learning to do, but the signs are positive.

But it's one thing tackling Bangladesh or the West Indies, quite another squaring off to some of the world's finest batsmen, who eat spin for breakfast, in conditions which wouldn't be any spinner's first choice of pitch.

He knows Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and company will come hard at him. That's just fine. It's all part of the deal in Sodhi's mind.

"You want to be playing the best in the world. If it's going to be a challenge that's how you further yourself as a cricketer and a person, if you're put in tough situations," he said.

As Trent Boult and Tim Southee laid waste to India's top order spectacularly at Eden Park yesterday, you wondered at the emotions running through a player who was born in Ludhiana in the Punjab and moved to New Zealand at four.

He was loosening his arms from the fourth over of the Indian innings which might have been a bit optimistic, but he was on for his first over just before tea. His early overs were tidy.

Yes, he's thrilled to be playing against the land of his birth, but in his mind the main thing was to be playing test cricket.

"The emotions are always going to be there, but balancing them out is going to be important over the series."

Former New Zealand spinner Dipak Patel questioned the wisdom of selecting Sodhi against the Indians. His is not a lone voice. There are those who fear he may suffer at the hands of India's batsmen. After all, he's playing only his sixth test. The previous five brought 11 wickets at 51 apiece.

"So far I'd say so," Sodhi said to the question of whether what lies ahead will be the sternest test of his young career.

"But that's very exciting. All I want to do is play at the highest level of cricket."

He's feeling in good rhythm, indeed has done for a while. He took five wickets for Northern Districts against Canterbury in his test leadup but pointed out: "I'd bowled three or four spells prior to that and didn't get the wickets I thought I deserved.

"If you keep believing you're doing the right things then the rewards will come."

He gets lots of advice and has learned to sift the useful from the well-intentioned.

Having overtaken Bruce Martin as Dan Vettori's spin replacement, he is being seen as New Zealand's long-term test spinner, but he takes a phlegmatic view of what lies ahead.

"It's quite weird. I just feel if I go out and try to perform the best I can that's all I can do. That's what keeps me going instead of thinking 'I've got to go and get all these batsmen out'.

"If I give 100 per cent, and do all the right things I've been doing, I will be able to look myself in the mirror and say 'yeah I've done a good job'."