Catch son, nice Flamingo batting as well.

Fresh in my mind after being devoured by Australia over two Tests is the general failing of The Stable. That The Stable exists as The Stable is thanks to the ability, depth and potential of our BLACKCAPS bowlers and those on the cusp, hence such lacklustre performances in those two Tests left me with nothing but a sour taste.

As kiwi cricket fans, we're all in on the new-ball partnership of Tim Southee and Trent Boult as they have been key figures in the BLACKCAPS' resurgence. Swing and accuracy allow them to attack, attacking the stumps and outside edges of batsmen who are bamboozled by a couple of centimetres of movement in the air, they were suppose to make fools of Australia's batsmen just like England did only six months prior.

Yet it was Australia's bowlers who controlled any swing and seam movement the best. It was the Aussies who had the ball moving both ways before the kiwis had even contemplated it. It wasn't the Aussies who resorted to short-pitched bowling to earn wickets, that was the BLACKCAPS and the uber-aggressive Neil Wagner.

Note: At risk of alienating a whole lot of kiwis, I ask you to ponder the difference between Mitchell Johnson and Wagner besides 10km/h.

Green-seaming pitches, the 'best new-ball duo' in the world ... which ended with Wagner being our best bowler thanks to bodyline bowling. That's not quite how I had imagined this series playing out. Nathan Lyon finished as the leading wicket-taker for the series with 10 wickets (Mark Craig had 2 wickets), while Australia's two most kiwi-like medium-pacers Josh Hazlewood (9 wickets) and Jackson Bird (8) were their best bowlers. Wagner finished with 7, James Pattinson had 6 and Boult had 5, with Tim Southee picking up the same number of wickets as Corey Anderson (3) despite bowling 20 more overs than Anderson.

Five Australian bowlers had more wickets than Southee.

Pattinson had more wickets than Boult, even though Pattinson only played one Test.

Much was made about kiwi conditions and pitches that assist our typical kiwi swing bowlers. Looking back, safe in the knowledge of a 2-0 whitewash, it's hard not to view this as a myth on two counts: that the groundsmen couldn't actually produce proper green-seamers that would help the BLACKCAPS and/or Australia's batsmen and bowlers were simply better equipped to deal with such conditions.

Worrying too much about the pitch though is a dangerous hobbie, as we saw. I viewed Australia's tricks of the trade such as reverse swing and plugging away, serving up dot balls and waiting for a mistake from a kiwi batsman, as being products of bowling on flatter Australian pitches. There was a heavy emphasis placed on swing and seam, with a silver platter apparently served up for Southee and Boult only for Australia's bowlers to showcase their wider array of tricks and techniques ... even if one of those tricks is to rely on patience.

There's now a long break before we see the BLACKCAPS in the whites again which leaves plenty of time to suss things out. Questions must be asked about the Southee/Boult combination, anyone who looks at the numbers from this series and isn't willing to question Southee and Boult is in denial. Are Southee and Boult too comfortable, with no one really putting pressure on them to perform? Perhaps, I mean could we really rely on Matt Henry and Doug Bracewell to take the new-ball? I'm not confident that there's anyone in Aotearoa who is demanding selection over Southee and Boult which is a big problem.

Just like the batsmen in the wash up from this Test series, the bowlers showed greater threat in coloured clothing. Matt Henry isn't quite at a Martin Guptill level just yet and it's rough to judge Henry after a single Test from this series, however it's hard to ignore the difference between 8/158 off 26 overs in three ODIs vs 0/134 off 41 overs in the second Test. I'm sensing a general leaning towards ODI cricket with both bat and ball in this BLACKCAPS team and it worries me, as I stated yesterday, is this BLACKCAPS team really that much different from previous BLACKCAPS teams who were also pretty good at ODI cricket and not as good in the Test arena?

Southee and Boult were shown up to a rather embarrassing extent. Wagner was good, if only at bowling short while Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry were largely non-factors.

I guess a positive is that Corey Anderson bowled 43 overs across two Tests and took 3/159. Anderson is a bowler who looks like a natural and to have a lefty who biffs it down at 135-140km/h, capable of swinging it, as your 5th option is a luxury.

What is even more worrying than the mediocrity served up by the BLACKCAPS Stable is the lack of pace bowlers putting their hands up, demanding selection to put pressure on those comfortable folk. Scott Kuggeleijn is the leading wicket-taker in the Plunket Shield with 33 wickets (average of 24.84, 3.77 rpo) and he's similar to Henry in that he relies more on effort and accuracy than swing. It's good to see a young quick leading the wicket-takers list, however four of the top seven wicket-takers are spinners: Ish Sodhi - 22 wickets, Jeetan Patel - 22, Todd Astle - 20, Ajaz Patel - 20.

Joel Baker is a medium-pacer who fits the classic kiwi swing/seam stereotype and has 21 wickets while Dane Hutcinson has 20 wickets. Both are enjoying success this season but will need to stack up a few more seasons with these sorts of numbers to really make some waves in terms of a BLACKCAPS call up.

Kuggeleijn has stacked up the numbers, having taken 20 or more wickets in every one of his First Class summers in Aotearoa. I view Kuggeleijn as a possible third-seamer option in the future and he must be at least in the mix for tours later this year and into 2017.

While they aren't near the top of the Plunket Shield wicket-takers rankings, there are a few youngsters who I have penciled in as being options in a few years. Ed Nuttall is a lefty from Canterbury who enjoyed an epic Ford Trophy campaign and loves to swing the ball like Boult while Kyle Jamieson has also been grafting away with Canterbury and offers a bit of variety thanks to his height.

They are joined by Otago's Jacob Duffy and Auckland's Matt Quinn, who are two of my favourite up and coming bowlers in kiwi cricket. Don't sleep on other youngins' like Blair Tickner from Central Districts who has 18 Plunket Shield wickets this season.

Perhaps it is time to provide pigeon-holed bowlers like Mitchell McClenaghan an opportunity. McClenaghan has 17 wickets in only three games (23.47 average, 3.17 rpo), but all of these games were played before Christmas. I'm not opposed to seeing how McClenaghan or even Adam Milne goes in the whites, obviously their fitness will determine this, however I'm eager to see other blokes given a run while the current crop aren't quite doing the trick.

The idea of The Stable was born out of positive vibes regarding our bowling situation but suddenly, I'm not so confident about our bowling stocks. Not only do the two leaders of our bowling attack now appear to resemble one-trick ponies, there's a worrying lack of depth and there aren't too many blokes who are hot on the heels of the BLACKCAPS bowlers, putting pressure on them to perform and keenly anticipating an opportunity.

At least there's a lot of time to sort this out, to get the right guys down at Lincoln, working hard on their craft, whether they are BLACKCAPS or domestic bowlers on the periphery.