As we dish out fantastic cricket content, there are a few notable trends in the opinions of punters who offer their feedback. One example is Central Districts all-rounder George Worker who is always mentioned whenever the discussion centres around promoting a batsman from the domestic game into a Blackcaps team; he scores runs and bowls spin so what more could you want?

Another example is Henry Nicholls, who is frequently mentioned as the first bloke who should be cut from the Blackcaps Test team. You could suggest that these two enjoy a link as Nicholls 'should be dropped' and Worker 'should get the nod', possibly with Worker getting the nod at Nicholls' expense. Working against Nicholls appears to be his tendency to fail the 'eye test' as many folk highlight the way Nicholls looks when he bats, or that his technique just does't look like it's going to bring success.

In Wellington, Nicholls finally managed to go big and get a Test century. In his last four Test matches, Nicholls has hit 53, 4*, 98, 12 and 118 (prior to the second dig in Welly) which is a pretty damn handy patch of runs, but of course the 53 and 98 came against Bangladesh. Before the Test series against Bangladesh, Nicholls had two half-centuries to his name and both of those half-centuries came against quality opposition in games where most of Nicholls' kiwi comrades struggled to do anything with the bat.

His first half-century came also came in Wellington, against Australia. Across the two innings' in this game, only Nicholls and Tom Latham hit half-centuries. His second half-century came over in South Africa where Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada kept the Blackcaps to 214 and 195; Nicholls was joined by Kane Williamson as the only kiwi batsmen to pass 50.

There aren't many Blackcaps batsmen who can say that they enjoy batting against South Africa, Nicholls certainly can. Not to mention that after the Bangladesh series, Nicholls went straight back into Ford Trophy cricket and hit scores of 76, 140, 65 and 64 which gave him six-straight games in which he passed 50. Nicholls came into this South Africa series with a Plunket Shield game to his name, he hit 34 and 71*.

All of this highlights something that has been on my brain for a while now as I lean against the haste to drop a player. Test cricket is a beast - perhaps this is why we are seeing more veterans get chances over younger players - and guys need time to really figure out how their work in domestic cricket can translate into Test cricket.

For sure there are guys like Tom Bruce or the enigma that is Colin Munro who could replace Nicholls. You can chuck BJ Watling up a spot and bring in a bowler, or you can bring in Martin Guptill to bat at No.5. What's wrong with just leaving Nicholls there? It's not like Nicholls hasn't scored any runs in Test cricket - he's scored runs against Australia and South Africa, duh - and dropping Nicholls will only hit pause on his 'Hello, this is Test cricket' cycle and whoever gets promoted would have to start that whole cycle again.

The other aspect of this; what should we expect from Nicholls? A 25-year-old who is making a habit of scoring tough Test runs is good in my book and while I can see Nicholls averaging 40ish after 30 Tests (he's in his 13th Test), anything over an average of 35 is decent.

What Nicholls is part of, is a youngish top-five. Chuck Ross Taylor's experience in and a line up of Raval, Latham, Williamson, Taylor, Nicholls is a batting unit that can be built around over the next few years. We can only really make major judgements about Nicholls and Raval until after they have played at least 20 Tests, so until then it's probably best to acquaint yourselves with Nicholls at No.5.

Just don't get too high or too down on Nicholls. He's not the next Williamson, nor will he be dropped after a couple of low scores.