Even after his man-of-the-match display in the Blackcaps' crushing victory over South Africa at Christchurch, seamer Matt Henry is by no means guaranteed his place for the series finale starting Friday.
With bowling spearhead Trent Boult on paternity leave, Henry made the most of just his 15th test appearance, taking first-innings figures of 7/23 and match figures of 9/55 to leave South Africa's batting unit in tatters, as New Zealand completed an innings victory inside three days.
The performance was just reward for Henry, who's never been a fixture of the NZ test side since his debut in 2015, often forced to play back-up to the likes of Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson.
Stand-in captain Tom Latham outlines the Blackcaps' delight at seeing Henry achieve success at the highest level.
"For someone like him, who's been around the group for such a long time and hasn't played as much test cricket as he would have liked, but we certainly know how much of a valuable member he is of this side," says Latham..
"For him to turn up and probably know that he's going to be playing, to bowl the way that he did, we certainly have seen that for such a long time.
"But for him to put it together at test level is such a confidence boost for him and such an important guy in the side. We're certainly very happy for him."
Henry's form opens up another difficult selection headache for the Blackcaps selectors.
Boult's return leaves them needing to pick four seamers from five viable options, with Henry's performance putting him in the frame alongside Southee, Wagner and Jamieson, who have all cemented themselves as first-choice bowlers in New Zealand's tenure as World Test Championship winners.
The selection dilemma comes after spinner Ajaz Patel faced the same problem, taking a 10-wicket haul against India at Mumbai, before being dropped for New Zealand's home summer and not playing a test since.
Latham says no selection decisions have been made for next week's series finale, but the headache is something the Blackcaps are fortunate to have.
"I don't think that's been decided yet, we'll have to play that by ear over the coming days," he adds.
"It's obviously a great problem to have, I think, in terms of you've got guys pushing their case for selection and guys stepping up when they take their opportunity.
"We'll have to assess that over the coming days, but they're certainly good discussions to be having."
The Blackcaps begin the second test against South Africa, again at Hagley Oval, on Friday - looking to secure a maiden series victory over the Proteas.
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