Jeet Raval's in; sensible with a touch of strange, but more sensible.

The winds of change have breezed through Mike Hesson's Blackcaps with the Test squad to face Pakistan. Martin Guptill, Doug Bracewell, Jeetan Patel, Luke Ronchi and Ish Sodhi have been discarded with Todd Astle, Jeet Raval and Colin de Grandhomme coming into the squad.

That the winds of change have only breezed through this squad is an important note as Ronchi, Bracewell, Patel and Sodhi were part of an extending touring party of India. With Mitchell Santner unavailable for the first Test via injury, this could have opened the door for Patel to try establish himself as Aotearoa's No.1 spinner late in his career or for Sodhi to be given full control of the sole spinner duties.

Astle offers something different to both Patel and Sodhi though he's also genuinely capable of batting at No.6/7, making him a like-for-like replacement for Santner. Whether Astle's leg-spin can prove effective against Pakistan's batsmen who deal with spin rather easily and face the world's best leggy in the nets on a regular basis, is a major query regarding Astle's selection. Sodhi offers bounce as well as turn and this variety could have been interesting, Astle has been equally as good with bat and ball though so hard to argue here.

Finally, Guptill has been cut. I had come around to thinking that a final chance in Aotearoa would have been good for Guptill as he's just scored runs opening for Auckland - more runs than Raval - and this adds more confusion to Hesson's work. In theory, dropping Guptill is a smart move all round but Hesson refused to do so in South Africa and India which are both tough destinations for touring batsmen. Hesson gave Guptill ample opportunity to score runs in tough conditions, but won't give him another opportunity in what should be the easiest conditions for him.

It's just odd timing - why couldn't his have been done when Raval was touring with the side in Africa? Or why wasn't Raval in India to cover Guptill's woes and get a taste of Test cricket in tough conditions?

Raval will now likely debut in favourable conditions, giving him the best chance of success and while everything Hesson does has a splash of straight up weirdness, once again it's hard to form any major argument against Raval's selection over Guptill. Although I would point out that fellow Auckland opener Michael Guptill-Bunce is forming a formidable case to gain a promotion ... and Guptill's just shown he can score 4-day runs.

I'll just leave these 2016/17 Plunket Shield run stats here...

Michael Guptill-Bunce: 3 games, 265 runs @ 44.16, 67.77sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.

Jeet Raval: 3 games, 244 runs @ 40.66, 54.58sr, 1 x 50.

Martin Guptill: 1 game, 184 runs @ 184, 65.71sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

And Colin de Grandhomme has been selected. De Grandhomme is a brutal middle order batsman who can bowl a few overs, with his mediums nicely suited to seaming decks around Aotearoa. He does strike me as one of many kiwi cricketers who perform strongly in domestic cricket but can't quite make the jump up to Test cricket and we need to remember that Corey Anderson wasn't considered for selection as he's getting back to his best with the ball, while I'd also suggest that if de Grandhomme has been selected, Scott Kuggeleijn could have been an interesting option, sans the off-field situation.

Both Anderson and Kuggeleijn have more upside than de Grandhomme and de Grandhomme will struggle to get game time in this series given Jimmy Neesham will most likely take on the majority of the all-round duties with Astle. So why not give that depth all-rounder spot to a youngster, a young batsman or bowler who could benefit from being around the team?

The selection of de Grandhomme doesn't signify much foresight, or future development plans, and could be viewed as a filler selection. There's numerous cricketers in the domestic scene, or more importantly in that Aotearoa 'A' cricket team, who would be better off carrying the drinks than de Grandhomme (Will Young, Bharat Popli, Josh Finnie), especially as Tom Blundell's going to be the wicket-keeper for Aotearoa 'A' and could have offered cover to BJ Watling in this series.

My Blackcaps team for the first Test:

Jeet Raval, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Jimmy Neesham, BJ Watling, Todd Astle, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult.