For many, the bubble has burst. Aotearoa's glorious Blackcaps, world renowned for being good enough to bully touring teams within the land of the long white cloud and sporadic moments of the extraordinary, leave Australia with what can only be described as a horrible 0-3 series sweep. Thoroughly out-played in all regards of Test cricket, by a far superior collection of cricketers.

As you may be able to imagine, trying to collect and organise thoughts on such woes is a tricky task. The lovely folks who read and support the bros, will know that numerous angles will be explored in the coming days. Today, the day after yet another borderline embarrassing batting collapse, I sit without much sadness, heck there's even a cheeky grin present as I explore the depths of this Blackcaps abyss.

For the past two years, maybe three-four years we have consistently rolled out our thoughts on the ongoing shambles that has been planning, preparation, scheduling and selection with regards to the Blackcaps. Straight up, the Niche Cache has kinda been on an island in suggesting that certain issues are blatantly existing as the mainstream media ensure that connections to NZC and the Blackcaps are cosy. However you want it, there's plenty of stuff to absorb throughout the past few years from the Niche Cache clearly outlining a long list of weird antics.

Throughout this time though, the Blackcaps have been pretty good. The best example of this was the World Cup and the months leading up to the World Cup were a fine case of 'shambles 101'. This time last year we were watching an implosion of the Blackcaps ODI opening batsmen pair, pondering an uncertain wicket-keeping situation and all sorts of other weird stuff. Prior to the World Cup, there was very little evidence of clear planning and preparation ... for the biggest tournament we have in cricket.

But, the Blackcaps made it to the fucking final! How that final went down, then ensures that any negative vibes around Blackcaps cricket vanished as everyone celebrated the lovely kiwis. Celebrating, while conveniently forgetting all the mischief that had taken place prior to that point and mischief that was soon present in Sri Lanka and again in the naming of squads for two Test series.

That's just for kiwi cricket fans. International folk don't even know about the weird stuff, they just see the Blackcaps performing well on the international stage and assume that everything is tremendous - hence the slither of international shock with what has transpired in Australia.

This tour of Australia is a culmination, a climax of all the weird moves that have stacked up. Perhaps I found it frustrating that the weirdness never really had a detrimental impact on performance, that somehow Kane Williamson's leadership was able to overcome the bullkaka. Frustrating because if everything looks all good, nothing will change.

Take this as a hearty life moment kinda thing; if you have the ability to critically assess yourself (or insert whatever here) on a regular basis, issues stack up and they stack up to weight a whole lot and under that weight, crumbling ensues.

With that in mind, I'm not overly upset. Perhaps in a wider context, we are starting to see things as they really are and while that alludes to far more serious matters than a cricket team, the same insight applies with the Blackcaps. Many folks appear to have been living in a certain fantasy with the Blackcaps, ignoring the splashes of reality and truth to continue in their belief and message around their Blackcaps fantasy. Now we've been dosed with the tricky truth.

The tricky truth.

I can only give you my perception of the tricky truth and a good way of absorbing Niche Cache content is to use our perspective to help you build your own tricky truth. In no way am I, for example the be all of Blackcaps opinion - I'm merely here to help you think differently, using your own noggin'.

Prior to this Test series in Australia, I previewed the Blackcaps under the premise that the 1st 11 would be playing most, if not all of the series. The only way Aotearoa would win a Test, would be if the 1st 11 of kiwi cricketers were playing and then, the best players would need to perform as such.

None of that really happened, so here we are.

Part of this Blackcaps fantasy is that changes can be made to the 1st 11 and the Blackcaps could compete in Australia. The reality, however is that the Blackcaps need their 1st 11 on the park if they are to come close to competing and any minor tweak to that 1st 11 has a major influence on the team's performance. Old mate Trent Boult, otherwise known as one of Aotearoa's premier seamers and a world-class operator bowled 40 overs in this series.

That's an immediate red flag.

The third Test saw mass changes to the 1st 11, which I was completely fine with. Again; I have zero issues with changes made for the third Test. Any change to the 1st 11 though, brings with it mandatory changes to the expectations and this immediately puts me into my Aotearoa Warriors zone, where I regularly witness the insanity of maintaining a certain level of expectation when the conditions around those expectations change significantly (losing players to injuries, suspension etc).

These conditions could include Williamson averaging 14.25 in the series. Aotearoa will very rarely win a Test, or series overseas against a top-tier nation with Williamson averaging less than 20, or Ross Taylor averaging 25.33.

In previewing or forecasting this series, I wrote about these stats...

Williamson averaged 55.55 in Australia, Taylor averaged 49.30.

BJ Watling averaged 16.60 in Australia prior to this series. Tom Latham averaged 31 and those are major dips compared to their overall records. Jeet Raval had never played a Test in Australia, neither had Henry Nicholls and both entered this series lacking form - a recipe for minimal runs. The mediocrity of the batting line up, amped up the importance of runs from Williamson and Taylor and well, here we are.

Another odd little note; Neil Wagner bowling 157.3 overs with 17w @ 22.76avg/2.45rpo, finishing 2nd in wickets to Nathan Lyon across the series is not a good thing. NOT GOOD.

In the 1st 11, in Aotearoa, Wagner is a last resort. And by Wagner, I mean Wagner's short balls because, that's kinda all he does for this team (watching him swing the pink ball was juicy af). When Wagner is by far the best Blackcaps bowler, that means the swingers/seamers haven't done their job and then it is up to Wagner to do the job. Usually, this is less frequent in Aotearoa.

Funnily enough, I come to a point of funky intrigue because of what has transpired and I believe there is genuine value in a sympathetic view. My sympathetic perspective extends to the playing group and I do not believe too much negativity should be thrown at captain Williamson, or coach Gary Stead.

Selection, scheduling and the lack of concise planning/preparation were again the major issue. The bloke who is in charge of much of that, tends to lurk in the background and while he's chillin, many folks with a level of influence will be discussing the coach and team. We have endured years of simply the strangest selections and methods around those selections, with no consequence.

My sympathy though, zones in on a generally theme here of stumbling upon positive scenarios that appear to be planned and prepared for. Anyone with a sprinkle of cricketing nous can see that selections and planning around selections for this Australia series, were rather shambolic. Yet here we are, with fresh lads pushing for further Blackcaps Test opportunities.

Because we rarely saw the Aotearoa's 1st 11 play in this series, the Test team has been shaken up. Suddenly Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips and Kyle Jamieson are in the frame and this presents a rather interesting juncture as we also saw a few lads struggle with greater opportunities. The thing is, guys like Jeet Raval and Matt Henry haven't had any pressure on them because the team has been playing well, with few reasons to bring in fresh talent and/or in Henry's case; a settled team cause his appearances to be sporadic so it was difficult to judge his performances.

The beautiful thing is, that we have stumbled to this point where the simmering depth of kiwi cricket is starting to boil over and slither into the Blackcaps Test pot. You may have seen this series as highlighting a lack of depth, I currently sit rather frisky about what I deem as an extremely talented crop of cricketers (young-ish domestic lads) infiltrating the settled Blackcaps Test team.

Remember that Daryl Mitchell played vs England and like Phillips and Blundell, these three looked alright in their early taste of Test cricket. Lockie Ferguson got through 11 overs and Jamieson somehow found his way into the squad, that's five players who weren't in the Test frame six months ago (Blundell as opener) who have now witness, felt the rigours of true Test cricket.

The fantasy has been that everything's honkidory with the decision-making around the Blackcaps. With regards to this series specifically, the fantasy is that the Blackcaps are in crisis.

The reality for this series is that a continued crisis of poor decision-making around the Blackcaps, has led to an undeniable thumping. However, there is also the reality that we have entered into a incredibly interesting period of transition where those who were once darlings of kiwi cricket, now have to perform or be overtaken by a rather slick new wave.

It is strange that looking forward with a level of excitement is inter-twined with relying on wise selections, which I have no faith in. That's part of the intrigue as we are in a state of flux with the Blackcaps Test team and based on what I am seeing in the Super Smash, the Blackcaps T20I team could see immense change for this year's World T20.

I have intentionally not discussed any spin bowlers here, that'll come tomorrow.

Ultimately, you can't win in Australia without a 1st 11 and at this moment, I certainly have no idea what a Blackcaps 1st 11 looks like. Hence I look forward to working towards sussing that out. A lack of planning, preparation, wise selections and scheduling resulting in the Blackcaps being swept, the same issues that have low key plagued the Blackcaps for a number of years.

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Peace and love 27.