The summer of Blackcaps domination in Aotearoa may continue tomorrow as the kiwis host Pakistan. May continue as Pakistan appear to be better equipped than West Indies for Test cricket in Aotearoa and while the major issue for touring teams is how their batsmen deal with the kiwi seamers, in Mohammad Abbas and Yasir Shah Pakistan do have nifty bowling options to hopefully deliver an intense, competitive Test match.

While everyone was frothing over the end of the Windies tour, Abbas took 5w @ 14.80avg/2rpo for Pakistan Shaheens in their tour game vs Aotearoa 'A'. Shah's leggys chimed in with 5w @ 21.80avg/3.20rpo and these two accounted for half of the Shaheens wickets taken, which then gets even more funky when you see that Abbas has a Test average of 21.70 through 21 Tests and Shah has an average of 30.66 through 42 Tests.

Between them though, they have bowled 13.3 overs in Aotearoa thanks to Shah's last tour here. This is where things get funky as it's a different beast trying to bring your skills into Aotearoa Test cricket and I'm fizzing to see some high quality lads see if they can be effective outside of their comfort zone. Abbas at the very least is built for seam bowling in Aotearoa as he is a nibbler who averages 17.55 in UAE, 23.55 in Pakistan as well as averaging 21.4 in England's juicy conditions.

How that translates to the swing and seam paradise of Aotearoa, is a key question for this series. Also crucial is whether Shah actually plays for Pakistan and then what he does with his leggys - not just for Pakistan's chances of pressing the Blackcaps, but also for spinners in Aotearoa and around the world who may come to Aotearoa.

The Blackcaps do have Mitchell Santner's 44.71avg (47avg in First-Class) glorious left-arm spin on deck and there is a chance that Santner is a factor as Kane Williamson rolled the arm over last time the Blackcaps played Test cricket in Tauranga. Santner took 0w @ 4rpo in the first innings, then 3w @ 1.33rpo in the second dig as he got through a hectic 40 overs of spin on the last day. That was the first time Santner took 3+ wickets in a Test since September 2016 in India and the first time Santner's taken 3+ wickets in Aotearoa since December 2015.

Swing back around to Shah who has had two tough years of Test cricket with 2019 and 2020 being his worst years since debuting 2014. While Shah hasn't taken a wicket in Aotearoa, he has 44w @ 25.36avg vs Aotearoa and given all we hear about the kiwi spinners being unable to impact games in Aotearoa (because the seamers take all the wickets duh), plus what the Wildcard wrote earlier this year about foreign spinners having a jolly ol' time in Aotearoa, this will be a tasty match up.

Pakistan have a front-line spinner, Aotearoa may opt for no spinner but I do think the Bay Oval pitch provides some juice for spinners. If Aotearoa don't play a spinner, then I'll be tapped into Shah and how he takes this weird Aotearoa spin scenario forward.

Fawad Alam hit a century for the Shaheens, while Azhar Ali passed 50 and Ali will be a key wicket for the kiwis. With a Test average of 42.86, Ali has scored a Test century every year since 2014 and he has two 50+ Test scores in Aotearoa as well as a healthy record in Australia where he averages 52. The only nations in which Ali has played Test cricket and not scored a century are Ireland, Zimbabwe and Aotearoa.

For the Blackcaps, everything's pretty tame. The one thing I would chuck up is how new batsmen deal with the challenges of Test and cricket. While there is a lovely record of new batsmen scoring Test runs for Aotearoa in the past 12 months, being able to ride the wave and back those efforts up aren't exactly crucial to the Blackcaps as the legends can absorb that, it is crucial to that player's fortunes as more tape is provided and teams start to suss them out.

Will Young's dismissals and dropped chance vs Windies serve as an example as he got pegged on the crease in these instances and that would be extremely familiar to any Test batsmen, let alone to the weekend plebs. You don't want to be stuck on the crease in Aotearoa, which is easier said than done because kiwi conditions often create that issue and with Pakistan having a decent seam attack, keep an eye on this...

For Tom Blundell, he got beat on either side of the bat vs Windies and with Blundell and Young I'm not overly fussed as they had to flow through different roles.

These are just the trends that emerged from that Windies series and while Young will be eager to make clear movements forward or back, how Blundell addresses being beaten on the inside for an lbw and also catching an outside edge will be interesting. Not because Blundell's in danger, just because we love Test cricket and how players handle their progress through the tests thrown up by the great summer game of Jahtearoa.

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Peace and love.