Let's put the shock of Bangladesh's monster first innings aside, that's if you haven't already. I reckon most of y'all out there shared the same admiration and good vibes in watching Bangladesh work their way to 595; how can you not love watching Shakib Al Hasan reach 200 or record Bangladesh's highest Test score ever?

There'll be room in the Test debrief to explore Bangladesh's relative resurgence, regardless of how the rest of the Test pans out. The success of Al Hasan and his kiwi-esque low key celebration was nice, so was the return of Mushfiqur Rahim from a hamstring injury pass 150 as skipper and even the half-centuries hit by Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman served up a dose of intrigue as both showed glimpses of their talents in the limited overs series as batsmen at vastly different stages of their respective careers and they then enjoyed a few more runs in passing 50.

Let's put the shock and admiration aside though, because batting does look fairly easy on that Basin Reserve deck and while the Blackcaps have a long way to go, they are in a strong position. This is why I'm eager to test my ability to waltz down a tight-rope...

Bangladesh scoring 595 at the Basin Reserve? Trent Boult going at 3.85rpo and Tim Southee going at 4.64rpo? Mitchell Santner going at 3.64rpo, well above his career rpo of 2.95rpo? Colin de Grandhomme going wicket-less and - along with Santner - unable to tie down Bangladesh's batsmen? Well, at lest Neil Wagner stuck to the script with 4 wickets @ 3.43rpo right?

I'm waltzing down a tight-rope because this certainly wasn't the best bowling performance from the Blackcaps, but both teams are scoring runs.

Yesterday though, I stumbled across a piece from Misbah ul Haq on cricket.com.au. The Pakistan skipper reflected on the Test series against Australia and that allowed him to sum up why Pakistan struggled in Australia and Aotearoa. In this piece, ul Haq highlighted the need for Asian teams to take 20 wickets and not necessarily score truckloads of runs...

"We always talk about batting in overseas conditions but it is actually bowling that wins you matches. When Asian teams tour Australia the bowlers have a bigger role to play than the batsmen. You need to have bowlers who can get you 20 wickets.  When India visited Australia two years ago, Virat Kohli alone scored four hundreds yet still they were on the losing side. England just toured India and often posted big totals, but they too lost the series. We scored 443 and 450 in Australia and still could not win. No matter how many runs you are scoring, at end of the day it is 20 wickets that will win you Tests."

This got me thinking about the Blackcaps bowling stocks; do we have a bowling attack that can dominate or merely take 20 wickets overseas? Do we have an arsenal that can take 20 wickets when the ball isn't swinging?

Or more notably; could we have such a bowling attack in the next five years?

In the past few months I have done a thingy-ma-jig about the struggles of Boult and Southee, as well as the need for Santner to score runs so we can add a more attacking spin option like Ish Sodhi to the Test attack. From that Boult and Southee thingy, came this...

And that doesn't make for good reading, neither do both our premier bowlers and new-ball deities both conceding more boundaries (24 for Boult, 26 for Southee) than Wagner's 19 despite Wagner bowling 10 more overs than either Boult or Southee ... against Bangladesh, in Aotearoa.

No need to get dramatic though, I'm just pondering if this current group of Boult, Southee, de Grandhomme, Wagner and Santner can dominate overseas. Is there enough variety, are there multiple Test-winning x-factors in that group?

The only bowler who excites is Wagner and he does so with a very specific plan, the same plan which someone like Southee often falls back on; bowl short bro. All good for Wagner to have his niche, yet you've got to assume that there's other skills to perfect or other nuances to exploit for guys like Boult and Southee. You've got to wonder about the benefit of having Southee and de Grandhomme both bowling at 128km/h, let's not get dramatic though.

Trust ya boy: there will come a time very soon when the Blackcaps will spice up their current bowling attack (which is looking kinda mundane at the moment). Whether that's thanks to injury or perhaps the continual plateau of Boult and Southee, the time will come to give one of these jokers a run, each of these jokers has something funky about their bowling...

Lockie Ferguson (First Class record, not silly limited overs stuff): 37 inns, 77 wickets @25.09avg/3.31rpo.

Kyle Jamieson: 24 inns, 46 wickets @ 25.82avg/3.32rpo.

Ben Wheeler: 56 inns, 96 wickets @ 28.03/3.02rpo.

Ed Nuttall: 34 inns, 55 wickets @28.87avg/3.67rpo.

Scott Kuggeleijn (when he's eligible): 84 inns, 156 wickets @ 33.14avg/3.86rpo.

Keep this narrative in the back of your minds over the next year or so. Especially as domestic cricket moves into one-day cricket and then back to the Plunket Shield to finish the season, as one or two of the bowlers named above will stack up wickets and demand further attention.