Former NZ all-rounder Chris Harris feels the Blackcaps made a massive mistake not playing spinner Ish Sodhi during their six-wicket Cricket World Cup defeat to Pakistan.
Leg-spinner Sodhi was left out of the unchanged XI, as the Blackcaps slumped to their first defeat of the tournament at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
The turning wicket saw captain Kane Williamson (1/39) bowl eight overs in the match, as Pakistan chased down a 238-run target with six wickets and five balls to spare.
Speaking to The AM Show, Harris believed Sodhi would have made a difference, if he'd played against Pakistan.
"The easy question, in hindsight, is why we didn't consider playing Ish Sodhi," said Harris. "If we're not going to play him on that surface, we're probably not going to play him at all.
"They talk lots about horses for courses and that, for me, was the perfect opportunity to bring in Sodhi.
"I probably would have brought him in for Matt Henry, because [Colin] De Grandhomme and [Jimmy] Neesham are offering so much with bat and ball. I thought it was a great opportunity, because they knew the ball might have swung, but it wasn't going to seam too much.
"Even though it looks like a comfortable win for Pakistan, because they won by six wickets, New Zealand were right in the contest till the end and if we bowled better in the last 15 overs, we would have got through.
Many cricket fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment at Sodhi's omission, but more alarming was coach Gary Stead's admission that he knew he'd made a mistake after just one over.
"Ish didn't play, because we weren't convinced it was going to spin and in hindsight, we got that wrong," he told Radio Sport. "The information and intel that we gathered was that it wasn't likely to spin a lot.
"[We] realised [we'd misread the pitch] in the first over, when it spun pretty big… that can happen, we put our hands up, we got that wrong."
After the match, Williamson admitted he was keen for anyone who could "rotate the ball" to have a bowl.
All-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who top-scored for New Zealand with an unbeaten 97, felt that the Blackcaps had the bowlers to try to win the match.
"I think we can only work off what we're told before the game," he said. "We selected a team based on the information we had.
"It's easy to look back in hindsight and say an extra spinner would have been useful. The quality we had at the bowling crease was enough to defend that total and, unfortunately, it didn't fall our way today."
The Blackcaps decided to keep the same XI for the seventh straight Cricket World Cup clash
and Harris expected New Zealand to now keep the same team for the rest of the tournament.
"I don't think New Zealand will make any changes. This was the perfect opportunity to make them, and I think it's a little late and because of how this game turned out, I don't think they will make any."
The Blackcaps are back in action on Sunday morning, when they face Australia, who sit atop the Cricket World Cup standings with six wins in seven matches.
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