Imagine, showing up for the first day of the first Test in New Zealand with the vivid colours of the blue skies and greenery catching the eye. As they say, if there's grass on the wicket, it's time to play cricket and Sri Lanka much like the Black Caps opted to make the most of this grassy wicket. Perhaps the cricketing gods wished to welcome Christchurch back in to the Test cricket arena with a glorious show or perhaps Brendon McCullum simply had an itch to scratch, either way an onslaught of boundaries dominated the first day, dictating how this Test would pan out.

There's no beating around the bush, the Black Caps should win every Test on home soil. That's just the way it is now because they have five players who can take a game away from their opponent freakishly quickly, as Skipper B-Mac did. We can't forget Kane Williamson's 58 in the first dig where he was a spectator of the show and it was nice for the Prince and Ross Taylor, the King to be there not out as the Black Caps sealed the victory. 

With the bat, B-Mac did his thing but Sri Lanka were still in with a sniff until that first delivery came out of Trent Boult's perfect wrist position. Boult finished with 7 wickets (3, 4) while his friend Timothy got 6 for the Test (2, 4). The Stable (including Neil Wagner and Jimmy Neesham) was on top for much of the Test, which is a great place to be but I'm eager to see how they respond to batsmen who take the game by the balls and attack. The Sri Lankan batsmen were fighting for survival for much of the Test and they were fighting for survival while trying to figure out how to deal with swing and seam in Aotearoa, while facing bowlers who cook up full deliveries that swing and seam for breakfast like bacon and eggs. That's not an easy task, in fact it kind of sucks because by the time the Sri Lankan batsmen have truly figured things out, the series will be over.

This result, while maybe not the manner of it, but the result had to be expected. We've seen the likes of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka come to Aotearoa and fail against much worse bowling attacks. 

I think the importance of our five best Test players should never be ignored, if a few of them perform - only King Ross missed out in the first dig and it was a silly run out, we win. But sometimes they won't perform to the lofty standards that we have come to expect and that's where the role players must stand up. Neil Wagner fits that category and he performed, without his 3 wickets in the first innings the Black Caps could have been looking at a slightly different outcome. While Neesham might struggle to hit good areas consistently with the ball, his 2 wickets in the first and 1 in the second were important as was his 85 with the bat. When called upon, these two lads stepped up. If you ask Mike Hesson what he wants from Neesham for example, he'd say 'a few overs, a few wickets and some runs' which is exactly what Neesham did. That culture of guys simply doing their job and what is asked of them is coming through, which will give the larger squad (15 players you can call on) a blueprint.

BJ Watling was fantastic as usual.

The only scratchy aspect was the openers. I'm all in Tom Latham and while I felt this way before the Test, it became much more concrete in the first innings. Latham has the ability to be our anchor at the top, someone who can grit their teeth through the new ball and manipulate the ball in to gaps to keep things moving. Hamish Rutherford likes to swing his bat outside his off stump, which will work sometimes but is largely a recipe for disaster and with so much planning done in Test cricket, he'll be easy to figure out. Pick which first innings wagon wheel is Latham's and which is Rutherford's...

Expect Rutherford to be there in the second Test though, he needs to be given a chance to learn and progress. We need to judge players on consistent failure or consistent success, this is merely Rutherford still trying to find his feet at Test level.

As this is only a two Test series, I think it's a great opportunity to now give a few guys a go. If the Black Caps are to become the best Test nation in the world, (which is what we want right? Or are you content with dominating sub-continent teams at home?) we need to have 15 players who can be relied on to perform. That means that the guys on the edge need to be getting their feet dipped in the Test cricket pool, keep them fired up. That being said, this largely refers to the bowlers and I think Doug Bracewell should get a run for either Southee or Boult. You could also see Ish Sodhi come in for Mark Craig, it's a possibility and the juggling act of whether to play Neesham or Corey Anderson sums this up perfectly.

If Hesson isn't going to play both all rounders, he has to juggle. I'd expect to see Anderson to play in the second Test and none of this should reflect negatively on the players 'dropped'. There's no point having depth, if the depth isn't ready to go. New Zealand Cricket and Coach Hesson have done a great job of building a group, a squad of players and finally we have some depth, which means they have to juggle giving guys playing time. Not just a bit of domestic cricket, but Test match cricket playing time. There is not better time for that than a two Test series, tucked away before a World Cup.