That Ross Taylor's return to the Blackcaps Test team led the headlines for the Test squad to face Pakistan reflects where we currently sit with the Blackcaps Test team. Home series against Pakistan and Bangladesh give the Blackcaps the opportunity to settle, with consistent selections and not too many dramas, mainly because Pakistan didn't and Bangladesh shouldn't be ruffling any of the Blackcaps' Test feathers.

King Rossco should always be in the Blackcaps Test team, so it was little more than an assumption that he would return. Sure, someone like Neil Broom scored some runs in the ODI's and Dean Brownlie is churning out domestic runs, yet Taylor has earned the right to automatically return. What Taylor's return - in conjunction with recent events - does do is that it paints a very, very weird picture about one of Aotearoa's finest batsmen.

I don't want to get too deep into this because there's enough to it to write a couple thousand words about it, I will however state what The Niche Cache has experienced in the past week or so. When Taylor wasn't selected for the T20's, I wasn't overly concerned as I'm of the view that there's no need to such royalty to play international T20 cricket, especially when the hottest young batsmen in Aotearoa could get a run instead. My comrade, the glorious and infamous Wildcard noticed something funky in that though and wrote this thingy-ma-jig about the situation.

From that piece...

That just tows the line of Larsen's sillyness. When we saw that Ross Taylor had liked our Facebook post sharing the Wildcard's piece , both of our minds were sent into overdrive; here was Ross Taylor (the Ross Taylor ... and a few other 'Taylors') appreciating something the Wildcard wrote, about Ross Taylor being shafted.

Suddenly, a punter messaged us on Facebook telling us that a 'very credible' source had whispered that NZ Cricket refused Taylor permission to play some BBL cricket. Taylor wasn't allowed to go play in the BBL, despite being dropped from the Blackcaps T20 team.

Taylor had been dropped for 'performance related' reasons, he liked our yarn about Larsen contradicting himself and was then apparently not allowed a quick trip over to play in what is the world's premier T20 competition. 

Taylor then conveniently picked up a 'side strain' and Larsen has conveniently changed his tune. In selecting Taylor in the Test team, Larsen said...

Make of this what you will, it's just rather strange development from Larsen's reasons for dropping Taylor (just say he's kicking back for a bit) that simply didn't stack up. Given that Taylor stumbled across the Wildcard's piece questioning all of this and liked it, only adds fuel to a fire started by Larsen's sillyness. 

Other than the return of Taylor, everything is fairly stock-standard about this Blackcaps Test team. The blokes who did the job against Pakistan deserve another shot, although I viewed this series as a great opportunity to give someone like leg-spinner Ish Sodhi the opportunity to stack a few Test matches up. As I said in this piece regarding Mitchell Santner, Santner needs to be scoring runs for the long-term prospect of carrying Santner and Sodhi in the same team together, but the way Sodhi has been yo-yo'd in and out of the Blackcaps doesn't appear to be the smartest thing to do.

Remember that Sodhi's leg-spin has grown up in Aotearoa, meaning that a major attribute of his, such as his bounce is nicely suited to firm kiwi decks. Sodhi is a kiwi leggy meaning the idea of Sodhi and Santner playing together only in turning conditions (sub-continent) is restricting the development of both as they could be getting in plenty of reps as a combination now. 

Colin de Grandhomme would probably have to make way for that to happen and obviously CDG deserves another crack after an impressive performance with the ball against Pakistan. Dispelling the myth of only playing two spinners outside of Aotearoa, along with the mid to long-term prospect of CDG in Test cricket will have me eagerly watching CDG's performances with bat and ball against a team the Blackcaps should grab a series win against.

The other bloke in that mould is Henry Nicholls, who gets ripped to shreds by most people who have a cricketing opinion. While he didn't pass 30 in four innings against Pakistan, Nicholls' two half-centuries came against Australia and South Africa. Combine that with the Blackcaps horrible record against quality opposition last year and their good record against weak opposition; you could flip public perception about Nicholls and say that he's one of a few kiwi batsmen to score runs against high quality bowling attacks. 

Caught in a tricky spot where he's still settling into being a Test match batsman and dominating domestic cricket (he's 3rd in Super Smash runs; 48avg, 141.17sr), Nicholls will be eager to put up his first 50+ score since that 76 against South Africa. 

Dean Brownlie is perhaps the perfect bloke to carry as cover in a squad as he can bat anywhere in the order and experience is helpful when being called on at late notice. The future is in blokes like Nicholls (and Sodhi) though, so it'd be rude not to give Nicholls some faith and a nice stint at No.5 throughout this series.

If the Blackcaps are feeling confident, we could see them roll out a four-pronged seam attack that would push CDG out of the team. In Matt Henry, Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Tim Southee, there are enough runs to cover CDG's absence and you've got to suspect that those four seamers and the top-four (Latham, Raval, Williamson and Taylor) will score enough runs and take enough wickets to win Tests.