In covering Plunket Shield and Blackcaps cricket closely over the past few years, I haven't been all that high on Colin de Grandhomme making a consistent jump up to international cricket. Sure, he could get more of a run in limited overs cricket, but Test cricket?

His abilities with bat and ball smack you in the face like a one of the many swashbucklin' shots he plays, however circumstance in the Blackcaps along with what appeared to be a fairly restricted style of play had me pinning de Grandhomme in the 'too good for domestic cricket, not quite an international cricketer' section of my kiwi cricketing pin-board.

When de Grandhomme was selected in this Blackcaps squad though, I didn't feel the same level of shock or surprise as many punters appeared to feel. I can't explain this, it's simply a case of 'oh they picked CDG? Cool, let's see how he goes'.

CDG went very well and he's now added his name into a bucket of kiwi all-rounders that is fairly stacked already; Corey Anderson, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner. We can also include a bloke like Doug Bracewell here as he's a capable batsmen who has been pushed towards being a bowling all-rounder, plus Scott Kuggeleijn is taking wickets and scoring runs for fun in the Plunket Shield. Obviously Kuggeleijn's not in contention so don't buzz, what we must now consider though is that CDG's skill-set could be nicely suited to leap-frogging what we thought were our two long-term all-rounders in Anderson and Neesham.

They don't come better suited to a fourth-seamer role than CDG with his medium-pace capable of tightening the screws from one end. When you bowl at that pace, you'd better offer something else and CDG offers a glorious seam presentation which allows him to extract any movement in the air and off the pitch. CDG just looks to be a better bowler than Anderson and Neesham via the eye test and his 30.18 First-Class bowing average and 2.84rpo combination is better than Anderson's 40.82/3.19rpo and Neesham's 32.90/3.53rpo.

Fans will need to acquaint themselves with CDG's batting as it involves a whole lot of boundary hitting, of which we got a glimpse in the Blackcaps first innings. CDG hit 29 off 37 balls at a strike-rate of 78.37 and that was higher than any other kiwi batsman not named Tim Southee or Trent Boult. It's all personal preference as to whether you don't mind CDG counter-attacking or blazing away boundaries after a good start, compared to a more settled batsman batting at No.6. CDG has the apparent safety net of BJ Watling - who hasn't scored over 23* since South Africa - coming in after him and we must also consider that Anderson and Neesham also love to attack bowlers with their willow.

If Santner comes back in to replace Astle, a middle/lower order of CDG, Watling and Santner looks fairly handy.

CDG's presence also boosts the number of players born in Africa up to three as CDG joins Watling and Neil Wagner.

CDG is also holding it down for Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club in Auckland, maintaining a fairly consistent presence in the Blackcaps; Colin Munro and Mitchell McClenaghan have led the way in recent years.

Just as kiwi cricket fans need to acquaint themselves with the range and number of strokes CDG plays, I'd suggest that we all need to be prepared for slow starts with the bat. Tom Latham and Jeet Raval are extremely similar as opening batsmen; lefties, compact techniques, pouncers on loose deliveries without going outside their main shots too often. 

Latham had previously played the anchor role with Martin Guptill and now the Blackcaps effectively have two anchors, which I love. Raval kinda played the perfect opener's innings for his 55 at 45.45sr and while Raval would love to kick on and bang a century in those situations, if openers are scoring half-centuries more often than not then I'm a happy chappy. 

Having two anchors also suits the attacking intent of Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls (to an extent) and the man himself CDG. All I want from Latham and Raval is to put at least 50 runs on the board before losing a wicket, I'm not overly fussed with individual scores at what not as their job is to set things up for Williamson and Taylor, to see off the new-ball and allow others to enjoy the fruits of that labour ... or enjoy those fruits themselves.