Ajaz Patel says he's been left feeling "disappointed" about his omission from the Black Caps squad for the upcoming series against Bangladesh.
The 13-man squad was named on Thursday, with Patel - who in his last Test became just the third person in history to take all 10 wickets in an innings - the biggest omission.
"[I'm] obviously disappointed," Patel said.
"Ideally you'd love to be in any Test squad. As a professional player you want to be included in all games and my aspiration is to play cricket for New Zealand as much as possible so naturally it's a bit disappointing."
Patel admitted New Zealand conditions were unlikely to be conducive to spin and his discussion with Gary Stead over his omission was "like most calls I've received" ahead of series on home soil.
Stead said Patel falls down the bowling pecking order in Kiwi conditions, with the four-man pace attack the go-to formula for the upcoming series.
“I think if you look at the reality of spin bowlers in New Zealand in the last four or five years, there hasn't been a lot of them taking truckloads of wickets,” Stead said at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday.
“And that's not necessarily the spinners' fault, but shows the strength of where we're at with our pace bowling unit at the moment.”
Patel has played three of his 11 Tests in New Zealand and never taken a wicket on home soil.
In his place returns left-arm quick Neil Wagner, who watched on from the sidelines during New Zealand's 1-0 series loss in India earlier this month.
Wagner turns 36 this summer and is closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He began to study for a real estate licence earlier this year with an eye to his post-playing career.
Asked if he had been helping Wagner along with his study and luring him towards his future career in the hopes of nabbing his spot, Patel laughed and quickly denied anything of the sort.
While disappointed to be left out of the Black Caps squad, Ajaz Patel had high praise for the veteran pace bowler. (Source: 1News)
"Wags is a great member of the team. We’ve all seen how much energy he brings to that environment," Patel said.
"He leads by example, he works crazy hard on his game...he’s a great role model in the environment and someone that we can learn a lot from.
"I know he’s extremely fit and crazy strong so I don’t think he’s looking to move into real estate too quick."
As for Patel, the 33-year-old will join the Central Stags for the rest of the domestic season, where he hopes to put in a series of performances that the national selectors will find hard to ignore.
"Every time I face a setback or a disappointment I guess the hunger grows.
"For me it’s about going back and knuckling down and really improving my game.
"It's just about performing and putting my name up in headlights," Patel said.
The first Test against Bangladesh begins on New Year's Day at Mount Maunganui's Bay Oval.
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