The easy route.

The easy route would be to lean on the fact that Pakistan are currently awesome. Anyone who ignores this is dumb, Pakistan are in an incredible bit of form which obviously goes hand in hand with playing in their conditions. This must never be lost when we talk about how the Black Caps, but it's the easy route.

The route I'm going to take? Watching Tim Southee play a flashing drive only to get an outside edge and be dropped by Sarfraz the keeper ... then watching Rahat Ali deliver the exact same ball with his next delivery for Southee to play the exact same shot, get the exact same result but this time Sarfraz the keeper gloved it. You will never win test matches overseas playing test cricket like that, nor will you win test matches dropping catches. The same can be said about charging down the wicket, that mental aspect of playing test cricket is still absent with our lads.

We pride ourselves on our fielding, any New Zealand cricket team is expect to be the best fielding side. Nothing less. I wrote something about the beauty of international sport last week and this test was a great reflection of that idea. When you've been in the field, chasing the red for days, representing your nation and test cricket requires you to stay sharp. The Black Caps simply didn't, whether it was fatigue or just a lack of that international sport edge, you would have to bet that B-Mac and Coach Hesson won't let the standards slip again.

Our opening bowlers got no wickets. No biggie, I mean look at the conditions. Hold on, Rahat Ali got 4 in the first dig and 2 in the 2nd? Imran Khan picked up 2 in the 2nd? Pakistan's opening bowlers picked up 8 wickets between them - 8/20. Tim Southee and Trent Boult picked up 0 ... 0/5. A huge learning curve for these two, hopefully they improve but I'll keep record of this battle between the seamers.

Not much point in playing 2 all rounders when Jimmy Neesham is tits on a bull huh? I really want to see Neil Wagner play, just to have him up the sleeve to try mix things up when it's not looking flash. But the more batsmen the better ... hmm, I mean we went with 2 all rounders to give us some more willows wielders, which clearly didn't work. How about our batsmen just deliver? Then it won't matter.

Tom Latham delivered, so big up big up to him. I like he and B-Mac at the top of the order and Latham will hopefully continue to grow in to a test opener ... well at least an ok test opener, we don't have a great record there. The only other lad to impress with the willow was Ish Sodhi who did his best to fight off the inevitable. Good guts and determination from him, if only a few others showed that ticker.

Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor simply have to deliver.

Shit hasn't hit the fan yet, that was the first chance the Black Caps got to see this Pakistan side in full flight - both with bat and ball. Pakistan in full flight is a thing of beauty so shout out to them. But there's a whole lot of work to do for the Black Caps, lots of film work, long net sessions and just talking, trying to figure out plans etc. The Australians simply didn't improve, here's hoping the Black Caps do.

The last thought or questions is about the 2nd test - any changes to the 11? I say yes, but it's a toss up. They may opt to let Neesham figure things out instead of kick him to the curb, but you might need a specialist there. The toss up is whether it's a specialist batsman or bowler. Neil Wagner or Luke Ronchi? Ronchi is super experienced and could provide some starch to that middle order, I wouldn't mind it.

If only Williamson could chuck a few huh?