You've rallied behind the troops through an epic World Cup campaign - is there such thing as too epic? - and then you've watched your lads, representing little ol' Aotearoa, take on the Motherland in an exciting Test series and an even more exciting ODI series. Craziness upon epicness upon amazeballs is how I would describe the past few months as a kiwi cricket fan.

Shit, you might have even enjoyed the exploits of our battlers as they ventured around the world for a bit of hit and giggle. I didn't, I had too much else to do, but I can imagine those of you who tuned in to see how our Black Caps went in a variety of T20 leagues, might be suffering from a bit of an overdose.

If that's the case, then consider this trip to Africa as the come down. 

So why care? Why care about a tour where the Black Caps will play three ODI's and a T20 against Zimbabwe along with two T20's and three ODI's against South Africa? I mean, it doesn't even feel worth the plane tickets.

Tours like this, though, give Mike Hesson the perfect opportunity to build a greater understanding as to how this group cricketers might combine as we look forward. Looking forwards down a path to being the world's best cricket team is where my gaze lies, as it has done since potential was shown, and I believe this tour will be crucial in building a group that can deal with international cricket.

'Team', I don't like that word. We need a group, similar to a squad but it's bigger than a squad because at various stages over the next five to 10 years, we will need to call on cricketers who aren't part of the 'team'. In the short term, we need to have more bowlers to call on than Tim Southee and Trent Boult because, as we all know, bowling is one of the most brutal sporting pursuits one can take part in. 

Having Southee and Boult is nice. Having two of the better swing bowlers in the world is always going to be nice but relying on them is not nice. Relying only on these two would be stupid and it would only see the Black Caps venture back into cricketing oblivion. Which is why neither Southee or Boult have gone to Africa.

This is only a limited overs tour, which is a bummer but we've got to get in where we fit in and I imagine that Tests haven't been scheduled because there wasn't enough time. So let's just take what we can with both Zimbabwe and South Africa offering conditions that many of these bowlers haven't experienced yet. 

We know Matt Henry, this guy is a solid third seamer who is now the leader of this bowling attack. He's a bowler who has impressed in nearly every outing so far of  his young international career, but he needs to continue to face new challenges and taste more international cricket. 

Ben Wheeler has played far less international cricket, but I have him in the same category as Henry - we know what they do, but we just need to see more of it in foreign environments. I'm confident that Wheeler will feature in this group for a long time, which means we need him to get as much experience as possible, asap. I'm not as confident with Doug Bracewell but I'm eager to see how he responds to the challenge laid down in front of him as other bowlers have emerged ahead of him thanks to his off-field mischief. It's a big tour for a few guys, but Hesson and Brendon McCullum have shown a lot of faith in Bracewell, which I like because I like the lad as a bowler. He just needs to start repaying that faith. A few cheeky games in South Africa against what should be a strong batting line-up ought to offer a chance for that. 

Two lads who I'm not so confident will feature in this group as long term depth options are Adam Milne and Mitchell McClenaghan. Which is why they are both in Africa and will play in both Zim and South Africa. While Henry, Wheeler and Bracewell cross over nicely into Test cricket, these two are currently stuck as limited overs bowlers, which is good (being any type of international cricketer is good) but both are also struggling in the coloured clothing.

We know that McClenaghan leaks runs. That's fine when he's taking wickets but when he's not taking wickets he's a liability. Milne, well he's fragile, let's not beat around the bush here. 

McClenaghan does deserve to be persisted with because he's shown an ability to be a strike bowler, while Milne deserves a shot to prove his fitness. Their performances in Africa will tell us a bit about where they stand and if they struggle to make an impact against Zim, then I'd be worried. 

Jimmy Neesham has been out of the game for a while thanks to injury and with Corey Anderson struggling for fitness, Neesham's now presented with an opportunity to build on his promising start to international cricket. How do I feel about the battle between Neesham and Anderson for our numero uno all-rounder spot? Well ... who's healthy? 

Neesham has enjoyed a nice little period where he's been Tweeting up a storm and everybody loves that, but that only works when you're consistently in the international arena and have the on-field performances behind you, as Neesham currently does. Zim will offer Neesham a challenge as the pitches are expected to be lower and slower than South Africa (hence Ish Sodhi's only playing in Zim), so he'll need to show accuracy and variety with the ball. He should also enjoy some success against a weaker Zim bowling attack - he could be at his bludgeoning best, but a lack of runs wouldn't be good. 

We've been robbed of seeing Mitchell Santner back up a solid England tour, but the loss of Santner gives us another chance to flex our depth muscles. George Worker gets that spot as a like-for-like replacement with his tweakers a nice addition to his strong hitting at the top of the order. Worker is a little bit similar to Hamish Rutherford (top order lefties), but Rutherford is playing in England and Worker is in Africa, which you could read as Rutherford being behind Santner and Worker as a limited overs batsman. I'll leave that up to your interpretation.

With Santner out of the tour, I would have liked to have seen Ish Sodhi get an extension to the South African leg. Nathan McCullum's the main spinner for that leg, which I don't see as much use given McCullum won't be an international cricketer for much longer and Sodhi is the next cab off the rank. Sodhi does get the Zim leg however and it's our first look in a while at him in the international arena. He's been overtaken by the emergence of Mark Craig and Santner. Sodhi's been pigeon-holed as a Test bowler, but a keen eye will be looking at how he performs in Zim with the white ball. 

The batting side of things is far less exciting, which is all good as it would have been pretty drastic to roll out the 'B' side for this tour. I've stated previously that I would have loved to have seen a young batsman taken on this tour and the more I have thought about this, the more I want it. Not in place of veterans like Grant Elliott or Ross Taylor as I see their presence as being highly important given the context of this tour. A youngish squad needs the guidance of veterans and skipper Kane Williamson and this culture that we all love needs to be consistently hammered into any newcomers/fringe players. Elliott, Taylor, Williamson and even Martin Guptill have an opportunity to spend a few weeks doing this.

I'm not all the way sure about Colin Munro's presence and if I were to bring in a young batsman, it would have been at Munro's expense. Munro has been given a few chances before and he gets another one here to prove that he's not stuck in that 'too good for domestic cricket, not quite an international cricketer' no-man's-land. Which I guess is why he's on this tour.

This tour of Africa may not seem all that exciting and without B. McCullum, Southee and Boult. Some will brush it off because, in the eyes of casual cricket fans, those three names are the sexiest. But with a bigger picture in mind and as we chase that 'world's best' tag, this tour has low key importance and there could be a few outcomes that will offer plenty of intrigue.