Watching Corey Anderson smoke boundaries in coloured clothing can be quite distracting for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, Anderson is still on a path to being a Test cricket all-rounder who can bat in the top-six and bowl over 10 overs an innings of heavy-ball left-arm swing. His antics in coloured clothing distracts us from this journey towards Test cricket excellence as we're currently at a petrol station in the middle of nowhere, pondering if Anderson will ever fulfill his potential in Test cricket ... while chowing down on a pie.

His T20 hitting can also be rather distracting as it never really looks like Anderson is in good touch. Anderson's sheer power enables him to hit deliveries that shouldn't be hit over or to the fence, for boundaries and more often than not, Anderson's not hitting these boundaries out of the middle of his bat; there's no kiwi batsman who simply muscles the ball to the boundary like Anderson.

That's most evident when Anderson does middle a shot as it flies into the sky. Sixes that go 10-20m back from the boundary have been middled, while sixes that land anywhere near the boundary rope have reached the boundary simply because it's Anderson who whacked it.

Obviously Anderson's approach is highly risky, but it yields great reward. The margin for error when hitting awkward deliveries to the boundary like Anderson does, is tiny, hence Anderson can look horrible during some innings'. This could be why Anderson's last seven Super Smash innings' featured five straight knocks between 20 and 40 runs as Anderson's method won't work every time.

Those Super Smash innings could also be deemed as distracting as they distract you from Anderson's actual value to the Knights in the Super Smash. T20 cricket is all about strike-rates and while Anderson only had one 'big' innings (72*), he did his job tremendously well for Northern Districts by coming in after Dean Brownlie and BJ Watling laid a platform and hitting 30 off 20 balls, 20 off 12 balls; continuing the flow of quick runs with 143.61sr.

You could make a serious argument for Anderson being the perfect T20 batsman. That's because he can hit any delivery to the boundary and he's a hit out, or get out sort of batsman. While Anderson has shown that he's also good enough to salvage an innings, his job is to hit boundaries.

This differs greatly to his job in Test cricket, a job we've rarely been graced with. Clarity and New Zealand Cricket aren't synonymous, although the clarity in how Anderson fits into the Blackcaps Test team has me thanking Jah for some common sense; Anderson has to be able to operate as a legit all-rounder to play Test cricket for Aotearoa.

I love Anderson's bowling. He's capable of getting some lefty-swing and bowls in the 135km/h slot, which when you combine that with Neesham's right-arm 135km/h bowling, would give the Blackcaps valuable options. Sure, Neesham and Anderson aren't able to bowl six cracking deliveries consistently (few kiwi bowlers are at this stage), but that's not their role. Their role is to just be an option with the ball.

Anderson has a Test batting average of 32.52, which compares well to fellow Cantabrian and England all-rounder 33.96 as well as another Cantabrian, Tom Latham's 36.76avg. His T20 hitting distracts us from the fact that Anderson is good enough to be a fine No.6 (I'd be happy with him and Neesham at No.5/6) and with career strike-rates of 56.86 (Tests) and 58.88 (FC) in the longer forms, Anderson's clearly capable of playing appropriately in Test cricket.

The most slept-on piece of information about Anderson is that his five scores over 50 (one hundy, four half-centuries) have all come in different countries, against different opposition. He hit 116 against Bangladesh in Dhaka, then 77 vs India in Auckland, then 50 vs Pakistan in Sharjah (UAE), then 67 vs England at Lord's and 72 vs Australian in Christchurch.

Neil Broom is a gun and has dominated domestic cricket for yonks, but looking at Anderson's notable scores reminded me of Broom; his three 50+ ODI scores have all come against Bangladesh, in Aotearoa. Different formats and what not, but it's hard not to respect Anderson's batting when he's got a Test average of 32.52 with 50+ scores in Aotearoa, England and Asia.

But Anderson won't play Test cricket until he's bowling. It's a matter of opinion whether you reckon Anderson can play solely as a batsman or not, what's crucial here is that Anderson has a clear goal to work towards with steps to check off. Anderson was able to approach the Super Smash just as a batsman and now he can continue to slowly work towards building up his bowling, to a point where he can seriously contribute with bat and ball in Test cricket.

The Blackcaps don't need Anderson in Test cricket right now. They have Colin de Grandhomme as a short/mid-term solution for now and Neesham would be next up, home series' against Pakistan and Bangladesh don't require risking Anderson either. Anderson will be crucial to the Blackcaps Test team in the next five years though, a period that will see the Blackcaps roll out the strongest Test group of my lifetime (believe that).

Next for Anderson is the Ford Trophy and just as the T20 knock was a bit of a distraction, you can't let it distract you from the importance of Anderson's one-day work with ND. Whether Anderson bowls, will be a huge narrative to keep tabs on, followed by how well he bowls and obviously how he goes with the bat. Y'all know we'll be all over that.