The end of Test cricket in Aotearoa for the summer came in fairly standard fashion with Autumn creeping up on the final day of the third Blackcaps vs South Africa Test. Faf du Plessis said some nice words after this Test, the sort of nice words that are a lot easier to say when you've just escaped this Test with a draw and leave Aotearoa with a series win.

This sets up a rather weird end-point for the summer as we've just sat through a rather impressive Blackcaps performance that came without Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Trent Boult. While there's an obvious positive taste left after various Blackcaps showed what they are capable of, it only amplifies the overall theme of the summer as we are now graced with even more confusion around what our strongest Test team looks like.

Just as we don't quite know what our strongest ODI team looks like ahead of the Champions Trophy.

As predicted, Tom Latham found some form and the top-three (four including Ross Taylor's return) is probably the most stable aspect of this team. Latham and Jeet Raval aren't going to be knocking centuries out for fun, but they will lay a platform from which Kane Williamson can work his magic from and the ability of Latham and now Raval to defend, leave and pounce is rather beautiful.

The impressive Blackcaps performance won't confuse matters with regards to Ross Taylor as Neil Broom hasn't quite been able to snap up his opportunity. Broom produced scores of 0, 20 and 12 in this series, on the back of the ODI series in which Broom scored 2, 2 and 0.

Confusion largely sits with the bowling group where Matt Henry and Colin de Grandhomme did manage to snap up opportunities, with Neil Wagner doing what he's done for a while now. Henry's wickets were the most pleasing aspect of this Test and it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone given that Henry went back to Plunket Shield cricket and averaged 22.30 with the ball over four innings, which is better than Scott Kuggeleijn's 27.16 but not quite better than Lockie Ferguson's 22.03.

Is Henry going to be selected over Tim Southee or Trent Boult though? I'd listen to an argument about why he should be picked over Southee, but the chances of it happening are slim.

De Grandhomme showed us exactly what he can offer the Blackcaps, in circumstances that suit his skill-set. Taking a few wickets, de Grandhomme continues to be a glorious kiwi medium-pacer bowler, just not someone who you are going to take overseas where pitches may be flatter or suit more pace and bounce. Need a bloke to come in and whack the ball around? De Grandhomme's your guy and scoring quick runs is exactly what de Grandhomme is best at, just don't be frustrated when de Grandhomme can't save an innings with his defence.

There's a high chance that the strongest Blackcaps Test team in 12 months time doesn't include de Grandhomme, Patel, Henry or even Santner.

Whatever you do, don't get attached to this team that bounced back strongly after the shenanigans down in Wellington as we are still a long way off really sussing out the best group of cricketers to take us forward in Test cricket. And that's where the good vibes of blokes scoring big runs and taking wickets fall back into the bucket of confusion that has swept through kiwi cricket.

I'm not convinced that this is a bad thing, or that it's the fault of anyone. I just think that kiwi cricket is at a very interesting junction where the pool of cricketers who are in the mix of playing for the Blackcaps has grown, leaving us with more questions regarding the make up of this team. This Test allowed some certainty around the top-four, yet it's anyone's guess as to how the rest of the team looks moving forward. At least this group of lads stood up and contributed to far better team performance.

At least we've got this guy...