Ever since the BLACKCAPS returned home from England, the excitement for their tour to Australia has been evident. The leftover buzz from the Cricket World Cup thanks to a BLACKCAPS team that have been on the rise over the past two years has coincided with Australia coming off of a horrible 2015 Ashes series. One team is rising, one team is apparently falling, this should be the series that kiwi cricket fans have been waiting for all their lives.

The title of this thingy might be a bit of a trick because being realistic about this tour means that we are aiming for a series win. There's no doubt about that and if we weren't eyeing up an epic Test series win, then we would have reverted back to the old ways in which the BLACKCAPS journeyed around trying to simply compete. Brendon McCullum wants to win, Mike Hesson wants to win, the rest of the team want to win and the fans want to win; anything less would be a bummer.

But it's one thing to want to win and to expect to win. Following the shambles that was the 2015 Ashes with the retirement of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Chris Rogers included, kiwi cricket fans shouldn't be over zealous about our chances. 

This was made blatantly obvious to me yesterday, the first day of the Matador Cup which is Australia's domestic one-day competition. Yesterday Steve Smith hit 143 off 122 balls and Mitchell Starc took 6/25 in New South Wales' first game while Andrew Fekete who was a chance of making his Test debut in Bangladesh took 4/30 for Tasmania. Cameron Bancroft who was also in line for a Test debut, hit 176 off 155 balls in tandem with Shaun Marsh's 109 off 104 balls for Western Australia.

These performances are just from blokes from the Test squad named for the postponed tour of Bangladesh - there was a double century and another century as well. Obviously I won't read too much into these performances, but it was a nice reminder of the strength of Australia's domestic scene which stands head, shoulders and thighs above domestic cricket in Aotearoa. It was nothing more than a reminder that Australia won't suddenly be shit at cricket

Mark Waugh (selector dude) has said that the squad to face the BLACKCAPS will be slightly different to the squad named to go to Bangladesh. We will still probably see Cameron Bancroft partner David Warner as openers with Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja likely to compete with Shaun Marsh for one batting spot. My likely batting line up would be Warner, Bancroft, Khawaja, Smith, Voges, Mitchell Marsh.

There was a lot of talk about Australia presenting a fresh team, but with no tour of Bangladesh it's hard to see any drastic changes. Bancroft is the perfect man for the job to replace Rogers as he's 22 years old and already has four centuries, nine 50s and an average of 37.38 to his name in First Class cricket. That's a pretty impressive record for a young lad and there's now an opportunity for Bancroft to make that opening spot his own.

It's also important to note that this series will be played in Australia, not England or Aotearoa (wait for the return leg yeeeeow!). Australia's batsmen showed a major weakness to the swinging ball, but in their backyard they will be a far tougher assignment for the BLACKCAPS bowlers.

And then there are the Australian bowlers. In my eyes this is the best collection of quick bowlers in the world right now, but South Africa take the cake for the best bowling attack. Australia's bowling group is large with Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle the main contenders to line up against the BLACKCAPS which would see Fekete slip back down the list. That's six bowlers who are all widely known cricket names who love to ruffle feathers and break down their opponent ... who will be bowling with their tails up in front of home crowds.

I will obviously be hoping for the the best from the BLACKCAPS, but personally I believe there are still many questions to be answered about this Test team. I'm going to keep these questions to myself for now, but a tour of Australia against an Australian team who are still extremely good will provide the perfect test that I am seeking for this BLACKCAPS side. 

This includes the immense hostility that I expect the kiwi lads to face from the Australian team and public. The whole feel-good vibes of Brendon McCullum and his borderline 'holier than thou' attitude won't be what this Test series is about, this will an extremely hard fought series between two highly skilled and aggressive cricket teams. Whatever you do, don't overlook Australia but view it as the greatest test this BLACKCAPS unit has faced.