Wholesale changes, even after a rather soul-snatching swept series in Australia won't happen for Aotearoa's Test Blackcaps. All I have been seeing in recent days as I emerge from the sewers and scour the mainstream has been rather dramatic thoughts on who will survive this tour of Australia and who is ripe to be kicked to the curb, the type of thoughts that don't align with any vibe permeating from the Blackcaps.

This summer was always going to be fascinating, regardless of what happened on the cricket field as the whole paradigm of kiwi Test cricket was flipped on its head. Instead of a couple Tests at the start and end of the summer, we are already through two of the three series on offer this summer and as such, shit has hit the fan. While the Blackcaps Test team could slide through a summer reasonably un-challenged by the rigours of steady Test cricket, playing five Tests in relative quick succession has seen almost everyone get injured or sick.

New Zealand quick Neil Wagner showed plenty of skill - and even more heart - to take 17 wickets at an average of 22.76 in the Domain Test series against Australia

That alone is an interesting concept to ponder and although lads getting the flu, or numerous broken hands/fingers is obviously coincidental, the cricket gods work in mysterious ways; 'youz ignore Test cricket!? Ha, we'll see what happens'. This is simply a case of where the (incredibly stupid) Test schedule of previous summers allowed for the same group to be rolled out, cramming Tests together allows for natural rotation.

The issue when trying to suggest that players should be dropped, from this series is that the whole team should be dropped apart from Neil Wagner. Combine that with how fresh players, the five players used in this series from outside the standard 1st 11 performed and folks think that they are automatically better than lads who have struggled. Perhaps the best example of this is assuming that Tom Blundell is the long-term Blackcaps Test opener, because he has started his Test career in a similar way to ... well, Jeet Raval. It took 17 Tests before the rot set in for Raval. Everything was pretty honki-dory for Raval in those first 17 Tests and even if he wasn't hitting personal milestone marks, he was doing his job as an opener in setting up the innings for the big dawgs.

As we have seen during this period of interesting Test scheduling, maintaining a solid group who are familiar with themselves, each other and the team culture has been crucial to the Blackcaps success - primarily in Aotearoa. Any small subtraction from the Blackcaps 1st 11, diminishes the strength of the Blackcaps because we are Aotearoa and there is a limited supply of world-class cricketers. With that in mind, any level of change based on this series in Australia has to be made with patience and planning as a priority.

Making a gang of changes and expecting the Blackcaps to be competitive against the world's best is insane, almost as insane as maintaining certain expectations as half the 1st 11 vanished in Australia. This is coming from someone who may have the highest opinion in Aotearoa, of the wave of cricketers pushing for Blackcaps selection in the coming years and while I'm positive about the future, I appear to be one of the few who can clearly see how fuckin' tricky Test cricket is.

The Blackcaps either stick with this group and allow for natural rotation to occur, or make wholesale changes and move away from win-now as players are eased into Test cricket. Ah, but there's a Test Championship on offer and Aotearoa's best chance of Test success is still rooted in grizzly experience and class.

In a Test series where Kane Williamson averaged 14.25, who are you going to drop?

That serves as the standard for the Blackcaps for this series and I'd go a step further to include Trent Boult's 121avg with the ball in his 40 overs.

If two of Aotearoa's very best cricketers ever, had such horrible series, other blokes are going to be cut? That doesn't make much sense and I've found myself leaning towards a 'flush the dunny' approach becasue of how bonkers this series was. Henry Nicholls averaged 15.25 in this series and hasn't scored 50+ in 9inns. The SCG saviour Will Somerville came into the third Test to snare 1w @ 135avg, Colin de Grandhomme got through 111 overs @ 41avg. BJ Watling got through a glorious 17.50avg.

The Wildcard's whipped up plenty of statistical mayhem, so check those out if you want the numbers injected into ya.

We have a Test series in which, most of the Blackcaps sucked and the best of the Blackcaps in Neil Wagner was relied on so heavily because of how much the Blackcaps sucked.

How you'd like things to pan out from this series depends entirely on your perspective of how the Blackcaps operate and how a Test team should be built. Anything that feels somewhat like wholesale changes, immediately puts the Blackcaps into a building mode where different players have to acquaint themselves with Test cricket and this definitely doesn't fit the mould of what we have seen recently with Blundell, Todd Astle, Matt Henry and even Kyle Jamieson - all have had to do their duties, serve their apprenticeship.

Mr chief selector may lose the plot and get a bit crazy, so brace yourselves for some weirdness around that. My feel based on how I've observe the Blackcaps operate is that they will re-up with the 1st 11 featuring Blundell up the top and *insert spinner here* because the Blackcaps probably realise just how bonkers this series was.

As an example of how bonkers the series was and a reminder that Mitchell Santner's selection isn't necessarily about his skill, but his fit within this team; if any number of Williamson, Latham, Taylor, Watling, Boult, de Grandhomme and Nicholls perform how they'd like to, Santner's role is immensely easier. I'm not here to defend Santner, this is merely me suggesting that I can see how Santner gets another opportunity against India because of how bad everything around him was. If you are a complimentary piece, selected in a role where your range of skills fits into the bits and pieces around you, your performance can depend heavily on those bits and pieces around you.

Maybe it just doesn't feel right to make numerous blokes scapegoats when the team didn't score 300+ in any of the three Tests, or when only two blokes averaged under 30 with the ball. These are team issues and the team sucked, so let's see if this Blackcaps team can suss it out ahead of a cheeky Test series vs India.

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Peace and love 27.