Any time that Blackcaps Test cricket pops out of obscurity, kiwis rejoice and with the Blackcaps hours away from starting the first Test vs Pakistan in United Arab Emirates, we are preparing for our first glimpse of the Blackcaps in whites under new coach Gary Stead. The funk levels are a tad lower than they otherwise would be though, as Stead played little to no role in selecting the initial squad but we may have caught a whiff of Stead's vibes as he recently promoted offie Will Somerville into the squad.

Somerville probably won't play though, this just sets the scene for my most intriguing aspect of the Test series and this first Test as we suss out the spinner situation. The most pressing issue here is whether the kiwis go with two spinners, who I suspect will be leggy Ish Sodhi and lefty Ajaz Patel, which would come at the expense of either Colin de Grandhomme or Tim Southee. There are a few wrinkles to the spinner situation, so let me break it down...

Why two spinners? Well, it's the UAE and then if we take a geeze at the most recent Test series Pakistan played there vs Australia, four of the five best bowlers were spinners. Australia had Nathan Lyon and fresh leggy Marnus Labuschagne, with Pakistan able to rely on Yasir Shah and then offie Bilal Asif. Fairly classic case of a top-tier spinner, partnered with the next in line, although Asif managed to take 1 more wicket than Shah, in less overs.

Spin clearly played a major role for both teams. The best bowler however, was Mohammad Abbas who took 17 wickets @ 10.58avg/2.37rpo with his crafty mediums. We've youngster Shaheen Shah Afridi star in the white ball series' and now it looks likely that we'll get our first sighting of yet another gun seamer that Pakistan have unleashed.

Muhammad abbas best bowling against england first test match and taken 4 wickets in first inning.

Aotearoa's seamers aren't quite as nifty as Abbas in these conditions and while there's a strong chance that we see Southee, Boult, Wagner and de Grandhomme given most of the bowling duties, my play would be two spinners. Sodhi will most likely be there either way and where Sodhi bats, or how coach Stead views Sodhi's batting could be a huge low key narrative to keep tabs on.

In 3 Plunket Shield innings prior to departing for UAE, Sodhi hit a half-century for Northern Districts Knights. We saw that Sodhi can handle the craziest Test cricket batting scenario that a tail-ender can find themselves in earlier this year as well, plus Sodhi has done his job in the limited overs series as he had strike-rates over 120 in both the T20I and ODI series'. Roll that up and smoke it, where you'll be lefty with a player who has shown that they can bat in Test cricket and translate the craft into the limited overs role.

This becomes a factor when pondering whether Sodhi may replace de Grandhomme, then squeezing Patel in further down the order. With that in mind, my team would look like this:

Raval, Latham, Williamson, Taylor, Nicholls, Watling, Sodhi, Southee, Wagner, Patel, Boult.

That does lengthen the tail, however given de Grandhomme's style of batting, he hasn't quite built up a reputation as a reliable grafting lower order bat. The alternative, of perhaps equal funk is to keep de Grandhomme there and bring in Patel for Southee which would see Sodhi come in after de Grandhomme and then Wagner, Patel and Boult.

Uploaded by NZC on 2018-07-04.

Southee has experience on his side though and while many around Aotearoa believe we are in the midst of Southee's low key decline, in these conditions he offers sound seamers. Southee will move the new ball and then his nous should be able to see him hold down an end when skipper Kane Williamson wants him to, while the more attacking options roll in from the other end.

The bonkers move would be to play Sodhi, Patel and Somerville. Not so bonkers when you consider that it would only require de Grandhomme and Southee making way, which shouldn't be viewed as dramatic given the conditions. Keep in the back of your minds throughout this Test series that Mitchell Santner will be eager to reclaim his spot and everything about this Blackcaps Test team, like the ODI team feels very fluid at the moment.

Everything else is fairly chill. I have highlighted Jeet Raval's consistent struggles during much of 2018 for various teams, this is countered though by Raval stepping up after a lean start to the Plunket Shield last summer to score runs vs West Indies and also, Raval bounced back from his niggly County stint with Yorkshire to hit two 50+ scores in 3 Plunket Shield innings recently; 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

I'm a firm believer in giving these guys time to figure out their work in international cricket, especially a Test opener. Raval needs plenty of innings' before he can genuinely be judged, especially as Raval is yet to play a Test outside Aotearoa. 11 Tests, all in Aotearoa and we need to see Raval in different conditions before going either way on his Test potential.

The same kinda applies to Nicholls, who has only played a single Test in Asia/Middle East. Nicholls scored 25 runs in India, his only Test there and has otherwise played 13 of his 18 Tests in Aotearoa (2 in South Africa, 2 in Zimbabwe). The rest of this batting line up is grizzly, maybe the most settled and thus most exciting Blackcaps Test batting group we've seen in a while, which puts the focus on Nicholls and Raval as we try to gain more insight into how they may develop.

Of all my thoughts, I'm most confident in suggesting that the kiwi batsmen will be under the pump. Pakistan have a serious new ball threat, that will then double back with some reverse swing and they also have this Yasir Shah lad. Shah was known as the best spinner in the world, but was out of the Test game for exactly one year and made a return for the Australian series. While still taking 8w in 4inns, Shah should be better after that series than he was before it considering the lay off he had.

Back in 2014, Shah took 15 wickets in three Tests vs Aotearoa, the most of any bowler in that series. Prior to his lay off, Shah took 8w, 9w and 8w in three Tests vs West Indies in the Caribbean, followed by 8w and 8w in two Tests hosting Sri Lanka. At his best, the dude's a monster and he's had his welcome back warm up vs Australia, now he's got the funkiest Pakistani seam attack in years alongside him.

Hit an ad to support the Blackcaps yarns.

Or jump on Patreon and support the Niche Cache directly, we drop bonus stuff for the Patrons and take care of the homies.

Peace and love 27.