Mr Fix-it: The Black Caps' secret weapon for final test

By: Niall Anderson

Will Somerville initially wasn't allowed to be on a plane to Sydney.

Somerville and his wife were invited to a friend's wedding in the New South Wales capital today, but with the Kiwi off-spinner in the midst of a busy spell of Twenty20 games with Auckland, his wife went alone and Somerville stayed home to look after his children.

Tomorrow, he'll be taking the kids and joining her in Australia, after being called up to the Black Caps for their third test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

For the 35-year-old, it's an opportunity for his career to come full-circle, having spent years living in Sydney, and playing several seasons with New South Wales, including multiple games at the SCG.

Somerville says that playing in third test would be a dream come true.

"It's incredibly special, it's very exciting for my family and I. It's a big deal, there are a lot of friends and family there that are excited to see me – lots of catch-ups and hopefully some cricket to play as well.

"I saw it on the schedule last year and was pretty excited about the prospect of being there - I loved my time there and was super grateful for the opportunity to kick-start my professional career. It's quite special to be going back there where my career started."

Somerville will provide some handy inside knowledge into how the wicket will behave at the SCG, and believes it should offer the more for spinners than was on offer in Perth and Melbourne.

"Generally it's a good batting wicket for the first couple of days, and then it deteriorates a bit and the spinners become more and more a part of the game towards the third and fourth innings, but I've played a couple of games where it's spun from the afternoon of day one, so hopefully they prepare something like that," he laughed.

Black Caps coach Gary Stead indicated that Somerville could be in line to play his fourth test, despite being a late call-up to a squad already featuring spinners Mitchell Santner and Todd Astle.

"He's someone we'll definitely consider. Will's played a lot at the SCG before so he understands the ground and we'll be tapping into him and his knowledge bank of the chances of that wicket turning and what roles the spinners will play in that test match. [His call-up] definitely suggests that we could play two spinners, without a doubt."

Santner's struggles – averaging 250 with the ball and eight with the bat in Australia – makes him the obvious candidate to miss out regardless of how many spinners are selected, but Stead isn't committing to dropping him just yet.

"It's not only Mitch that's had a tough fortnight, there are other players who haven't had the performances and results they wanted. It was three tests ago Mitch got a century for us that helped us win a test match and while we're talking about slightly different roles, that's the thing Kane [Williamson] and I have to get our head around – what we're looking for in the players for the next test match."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission