Fresh off a Test series win against Pakistan in United Arab Emirates, Aotearoa's Blackcaps are back in the land of Papatuanuku and Ranginui to face a touring Sri Lanka team. With a bunch of slick performances over in UAE, Blackcaps coach Gary Stead had to quickly suss out how that Test squad would translate into kiwi conditions and he has understandably trimmed the spinning fat from the squad.

Ajaz Patel is the major winner here as he emerges from the spinner fat-trimming, holding on to his spot. That means that Will Somerville and Ish Sodhi drop out of the squad, while Mitchell Santner is still on the comeback trail and Stead's perspective is crystal clear; Ajaz Patel is the guy.

Playing against a touring team from Asia aligns nicely with the Blackcaps seam bowling strengths and it's the same crew who toiled hard in UAE who will now enjoy Aotearoa's friendly conditions. Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme will likely form the starting seam attack, with Matt Henry patiently waiting for his opportunity. As we saw in UAE, Stead isn't afraid to rotate the bowlers and as the Blackcaps played in tough seam conditions, have had to travel a fair bit, have a busy summer schedule and have a World Cup looming on the horzion; don't be surprised to see Henry get rotated in at some stage.

Perhaps the Blackcaps will roll out a full-hundies seam attack, sans Patel. They are in Aotearoa and playing against Sri Lanka, so nibbly seamers always work well, but I'm keen to see Patel given a crack in Aotearoa. Patel has perfected his craft in kiwi conditions, his style of spin bowling has foundations rooted in having to do his thing in Aotearoa and this has resulted in Patel taking 40+ Plunket Shield wickets three season in a row.

With Patel and any other kiwi spinner, we should be giving them ample Test cricket opportunities in Aotearoa because they have been effective in Aotearoa - not just effective but dominant. Sri Lanka have seen spinners like Patel many times before and Patel is the closest thing us kiwis have to the great Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath. That presents anticipation though as Sri Lanka will be confident in how to deal with Patel, while Patel will showcase his flight, rip, pace and patience that kiwi finger spinners have to perfect.

The only other notable selection is Will Young coming into the squad as cover for the batsmen. Forget the 'cover for the batsmen' bullkaka, this is a lovely case of bringing in a young prospect and giving him a taste of the Blackcaps Test environment. The old Blackcaps regime never really did this and instead expected players to make the jump from domestic cricket to international cricket, without easing them into the beast of Test cricket, or ODI cricket.

This summer though, we have an abundance of A tours and now Young slides into the Test squad. My gut's telling me that there is a decent chance that Young plays one of the two Tests, either via injury or coach Stead just wanting to freshen things up in the second Test. However, I'd be just as happy with Young sitting on the sidelines, absorbing all the Test cricket funk and continuing to learn.

Young is 26-years-old and has 66 First Class games, averaging 41.38. At this stage of his career, he's a domestic cricket veteran and if there is anyone who should be part of Blackcaps Test squads as cover/development, it's Young. Don't get it twisted though, this call up for Young is rooted in his work for NZ A where he's churned out the runs in both UAE and Aotearoa; two extremes in terms of batting conditions.

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Peace and love 27.