Another game of international cricket and another opportunity to see Aotearoa's Blackcaps showcase all the same traits that have been instrumental in success across all formats. Your mate who isn't tapped into Test cricket's vibe will be wondering why a draw was delightful against India in Kanpur, while these Test draws display a hearty competitive spirit that now has context sprinkled around it as World Test Championship points accumulate.

One Test played in this WTC cycle, one draw. Onwards.

Ponder how the Blackcaps performed back in 2016 for the first Test of their series in India, played at Kanpur. Aotearoa lost by 197 runs and the only kiwis from that game who played this drawn Test are Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor. That's eight players swapped out from 2016 to now and Aotearoa improved from a hefty loss to a draw.

Pure grit is required to salvage a draw on the last day. Worry less about the moments in which different decisions could have been made to possibly flip this into a win. Not only is that spilt milk for commentators to ponder, it overlooks the magical influence of Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel. Two kiwi-Indians who continue to represent Aotearoa to the fullest, in touch with their Indian roots while comfortable dabbling in churs and jandals.

Ravindra has been graced with swift passage through the Blackcaps system. That's notable because it differs from the slow-cooking process that Patel enjoyed with his bowling, or Will Young enjoyed since making his First-Class debut in 2012. Tom Blundell soaked up wisdom from BJ Watling for years and his mate from Wellington showed that Aotearoa's depth has two distinct pipelines: those brewed over years and those who fall into the young wave across all Aotearoa sports where the talent is simply better than ever before.

Without a wicket in his 16 overs across this Test, Ravindra did a basic job as the third spinner for skipper Williamson while batting #7 or a spot lower with Will Somerville thrown in as night-watchman. What would be an ideal lower-order scenario to carve out a draw on the final day? Maybe a bloke who opens the batting for Wellington in Plunket Shield who averages 38.71 in FC cricket, with three centuries and 10 half-centuries in his 29 games. Ravindra's a batsman who can bowl, not a bowler who can bat.

Patel's a bowler, who has worked hard on his batting. Patel averaged below 15 with the bat in each of his first five seasons before hitting a high mark of 15.85avg in 2017/18. The last two seasons have seen Patel average 21.42 and 19.66, setting Patel up for this knock of 2* off 23 deliveries to seal a positive result. No surprises that this is Patel's best year of Test batting and that's as good as things get for the lad batting last or second to last; Patel's slightly better batting #11 than he his #10.

There is a constant thread throughout all Blackcaps cricket of players or elements of the team building into the present moment. Ravindra and Patel are both examples of this as their hard work in recent years culminated in an epic moment for themselves and the team. Other notable performances fall in line with this...

Tom Latham had scores of 95 and 52. Latham averages 42.62 in India, 43.22 in Asia and 39.69 across all 'away' games. This bloke is a world-class Test opener who had already registered three 50+ scores in three Tests prior to 2021 and as all these lads explore improvements, Latham's performance shows he's only getting better.

Will Young looked excellent in his first innings 89. Devon Conway was the bloke everyone had opening until injury ruled him out and like Daryl Mitchell's T20 World Cup efforts; Young pounced as somewhat of a surprise package. Young toured India back in 2017/18 with Aotearoa 'A' where he scored 43 runs @ 10.75avg and in the seven FC seasons prior to touring India, Young averaged over 47 just once. The three seasons since returning from that Indian tour saw Young average 54.57, 55.16 and 49.12.

Next step was a County Championship stint with Durham this year where Young hit back to back centuries in his four games. Young parlayed that into a knock of 82 vs England and while Young didn't put up a big score in the T20I tour of Bangladesh, Young was second for Blackcaps runs. Here are Young's last 10 games of cricket...

County Championship: 1, 21, 124, 5, 103.

Test vs England: 82, 8.

Bangladesh T20Is: 5, 22, 20, 46, 6.

Test vs India: 89, 2.

Young has always been among Aotearoa's most talented batters. Now Young represents how Blackcaps are improving and Young is scoring runs in different conditions as well as formats - last season was Young's best Super Smash campaign for example.

Who is the best at dealing with format extremities? Tim Southee.

Southee took 5w and 3w, a couple weeks after finishing the T20 World Cup with 8w @ 22.62avg. Southee is currently in the best patch for Test and T20I bowling of his career, now serving up movement both ways in conditions where Umesh Yadav took 2w @ 42avg and Ishant Sharma didn't take a wicket.

2018 was the first year of Test cricket in which Southee averaged below 20. Now Southee has delivered his three best years of Test bowling over the last four years, with 2021 being Southee's best year of T20I bowling ever. Southee has a similar record in India and Asia as Latham, taking his 26.89 bowling average in Aotearoa down to 25 in India and 23.93 in Asia.

Kyle Jamieson is fourth for all Test bowlers in wickets since January 1st, 2020. Jamieson has 52w @ 15.05avg and he has a better average than the three bowlers ahead of him in Shaheen Shah Afridi, Ravi Ashwin and James Anderson. Southee also has 52w (18.32avg) in this period, meaning that five bowlers in Test cricket have taken 50+ wickets since the start of 2020 and Jamieson's got the best average of them all.

Jamieson took 3w and 3w in this Test, after taking 2w in eight T20 games and one County game prior to the Indian tour. Jamieson has taken 3+ wickets in all but one of his nine Tests and while he doesn't have Southee's T20I balance, Jamieson poses the same threat as Southee as they can attack the outside and inside edge of opposition bats.

That basically means they move the ball both ways with control and variety. Aotearoa's batters showed a similar skillset as they were able to attack India's spinners with the sweep shot, also switching between back-foot play on a slow deck and front-foot play to limit the damage of fuller deliveries or those that pitched on the foot marks. All of which are skills that need to be worked at, developed through repetition in the nets and discussed as plans among the team.

This Test was absorbing and one for the avant-garde Test cricket lovers. The thing that has stuck with me since bad light sealed the draw was how much I learn about Test cricket from the Blackcaps. Watch closely and you'll find a bunch of kiwi blokes coming up with methods to perform well in India, then executing these ideas under pressure. Having seen numerous Blackcaps teams venture to foreign conditions and get smoked, now is the time to savour the mahi of this creative unit.

Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.

Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email with bonus content. Sign up here!

Peace and love.