Sri Lanka are back in Aotearoa to play a couple Tests and challenge an invigorated Blackcaps Test team that has casually won a series on foreign soil with new coach Gary Stead. Everyone's on a bit of a Blackcaps high right now, we've all hit the bong and been graced with Blackcaps herb, enlightened with an abundance of Test cricket and I suspect this high will continue throughout the two-Test series.

'Tis best to let youz know then, that Sri Lanka come to Aotearoa on the back of a 0-3 series loss to England in Sri Lanka. Roger that; Sri Lanka just got swept on home soil.

What was Kane williamson doing with trophy.. i found it bit arrogant #PAKvNZ pic.twitter.com/YEzD29d463
— Zero 21-12-18 #Zero (@Athar_r) December 8, 2018

When Asian teams tour Aotearoa, there's always a splash of caution surrounding how hard it is for these teams to perform in kiwi conditions. This means that I always find myself offering the warning that we are likely to see inflated performances from the Blackcaps. Statistics might be a bit bonkers and while it's beautiful to have everyone on the Blackcaps wagon, judgements and analysis has to viewed with plenty of context.

Take that caution, warning, whatever you want it to be and then add the 0-3 series loss into the mix. I'm always hopeful that Sri Lanka can step up and churn out performances that match their rarely tapped potential, yet this has all the makings of a dominant Blackcaps Test series. If that's the case, enjoy it for what it is and saviour the Test moments in Aotearoa; just don't get too crazy.

Sri Lanka's best bowlers vs England were their spinners. Dilruwan Perera's a 36-year-old offie who has taken over from Rangana Herath in the veteran spinner role (another reminder that spinners age gloriously) and then Akila Dananjaya, who is a 25-years-old offie and wasn't named in the touring squad. Lakshan Sandakan was named in the squad as a lefty tweaker and he took 7 wickets in his lone Test appearance.

Other than getting an insight into England's dominance as their spinners out-performed the home spinners and that Perera will be someone to watch out for in term of offering steady spin to plug an end, this is all about Sri Lanka's seam attack. For most kiwi cricket fans, these are the same guys we've come to appreciate in recent years; Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal and young buck Lahiru Kumara.

Uploaded by ProteasCricket on 2017-01-03.

It's fun to have frequent visitors to Aotearoa because then we can see different players progress. We've seen Chameera excite as a seam bowling prospect and he's now 26yrs, while Kumara is the youngster with a bit of funk to him at 21yrs. There is enough in that group of seamers to upset the kiwi batsmen and they will all be eager to enjoy more favourable conditions, yet the challenge is in offering genuine x-factor and also having the batsmen do their job.

Four of the five top run-scorers in the series loss to England, were from England. Dimuth Karunaratne held things down for the hosts, to average 42.66 and then Angelo Mathews was the next best Sri Lankan averaging 37.16. Roshen Silva only played two of the three Tests but did manage to pass 50 in both Tests to also be a factor in averaging 47.50.

Whether this translates to scoring runs in Aotearoa, against Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner is the conundrum Sri Lanka face. Chuck Colin de Grandhomme into that bucket as well because his nibbly seamers will likely be a factor in Aotearoa. In thinking about the kiwi bowlers and what we have seen from coach Stead thus far, I would expect Matt Henry to be given a crack in one of the Tests, most likely the second Test.

The selection of Ajaz Patel fits the mould of how the Blackcaps tend to operate in Aotearoa; solid spinner to do a job around the seamers. This is the same role Patel has done in a stacked Central Districts Stags bowling group and it's the same role Mitchell Santner has performed to an adequate level.

This is Patel's chance to show that he's better at this role, than Santner. When the Blackcaps tour then other spinners can come into the equation, but as we've seen with Santner, in Aotearoa it's about reliability and building pressure as a group. Of all the Blackcaps, Patel is the bloke to keep a close eye on as we all know how many spinners are frothing for a Blackcaps crack.

May we all come together and put up a prayer to Jah, that Sri Lanka are in Aotearoa to fuck up the Blackcaps. Merely having that intent will make this series a whole lot funkier and then such performances from Sri Lanka will give us a competitive series, a different challenge for this group under coach Stead.

Otherwise, sit back and relax to watch the Blackcaps do what they usually do against touring sub-continent teams.

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Peace and love 27.