Winning the World Test Championship as a lovely achievement for Aotearoa's Blackcaps. This marked the climax of a treacherous journey through self-awareness and development, plenty of mahi boiled down to six days and one trophy. Sport is all about such achievements and in the same way that history is written by winners, the Blackcaps are being celebrated because the finally managed to turn progress into winning vibes. Greatness though, is heavier to enjoy and there are layers for kiwi cricket fans to enjoy.

There is only one layer that we can start this yarn with...

Most Test Runs for Aotearoa

Ross Taylor: 1st - 7,564 run @ 45.84avg.

Kane Williamson: 2nd - 7,230 runs @ 53.95avg.

Tom Latham: 9th - 4,056 runs @ 41.38avg.

BJ Watling: 10th - 3,790 runs @ 37.52avg.

Henry Nicholls: 27th - 2,264 runs @ 42.71avg.

Most Test Wickets for Aotearoa

Tim Southee: 3rd - 314w @ 28.22avg.

Trent Boult: 4th - 292w @ 27.67avg.

Neil Wagner: 6th - 229w @ 26.40avg.

Only three blokes have over 4,000 Test runs with averages over 45. Taylor and Williamson are joined by Martin Crowe in that department, while Tom Latham isn't too far behind. Watling finishes his Test career 10th in runs for Aotearoa and he is 300 runs ahead of Bevan Congdon (big ups), while Nicholls is a few years away from chasing Watling down; Watling can bask in this then enjoy Nicholls' pursuit.

Only seven blokes have over 200 Test wickets for Aotearoa and three of them are in this current team. Of these seven bowlers, Chris Martin and Daniel Vettori have 200+ wickets while averaging 33-34ish. That leaves our favourite non-match-fixer Chris Cairns (29.40avg) and Sir Richard Hadlee (22.29) along with Southee, Boult and Wagner as the only Aotearoa Test seamers to take 200+ wickets with averages below 30. Check those averages for the current trio and compare them to the work of Hadlee incase you didn't know about El Padrino.

Peel a layer back and ponder Kane Williamson's greatness with a cheeky comparison to Virat Kohli. Here is how their last two years have played out...

Kane Williamson

2020: 6inns, 498 runs @ 83avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.

2021: 5inns, 353 runs @ 88.25avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

Virat Kohli

2020: 6inns, 116 runs @ 19.33avg, 1 x 50.

2021: 8inns, 229 runs @ 28.62avg, 2 x 50.

Williamson has averaged 80+ in three of his 12 years of Test cricket. In 2015 he averaged 90.15 and the other two are those listed above. This is to say that we are enjoying two of Williamson's most efficient years of his career, among a career full of greatness. Same applies to Southee as he has averaged under 20 in just two of his 14 years playing Test cricket; first in 2018 and then again in 2020.

Southee's 2021 average of 21.28 is his third best behind those sub-20 years. Boult averaged 20 through his debut Test back in 2011 and since then, Boult has not averaged below 23 in a calendar year. This year Boult is cruising with an average of 20.62. Southee has been brewing his nek level leap over the past four years, during which Boult was typically solid and Boult's parlayed that into the best six months of his career to start 2021. The greats are getting better.

Wagner has taken 2+ wickets in 51 of his 54 Tests. Taylor has a half-century in 14 consecutive years of Test cricket.

The seed of this exploration was planted during the Test series vs England. Having seen the Blackcaps dismantle many, if not all opponents in Aotearoa over recent summers, I was extremely curious to see how this group would perform in foreign conditions. England isn't India, nor is it Australia where the kiwis were touched up but a Test series in England does present various challenges and we've heard all about how tricky the Duke ball is. All that fluff aside, I was just desperate to see this group play cricket overseas.

That resulted in another Test series win vs England. Another is a key word there as it's the third Test series win in a row over England and they have not defeated Aotearoa in a Test series since 2013. We will remember this Test series as the 17-bloke series where the Blackcaps made six changes ahead of the second Test and whether it was Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel wickets, or Will Young's runs; the Blackcaps sealed their third consecutive Test series win over England with a team halfway between 1st and 2nd 11.

Devon Conway and Kyle Jamieson have been key figures since making their Test debuts. Conway hit a double-banger on Test debut while Jamieson took 4w and hit 4 sixes on his way to 44 @ 97.77sr. Jamieson dismissed Kohli on February 21, 2020 and we could credit Jamieson with Kohli's dip in form since then. Here we have two blokes who have dominated Test cricket in rather disgusting fashion in a short space of time and it's been brewing...

Devon Conway in Plunket Shield

2017/18: 40th - 238 runs @ 39.66avg.

2018/19: 1st - 659 runs @ 82.37avg.

2019/20: 1st - 701 runs @ 87.62avg.

2020/21: 9th - 456 runs @ 50.66avg.

Kyle Jamieson's First Four Seasons of Plunket Shield

2014/15: 59ov, 1w @ 182avg.

2015/16: 175ov, 21w @ 27.33avg.

2016/17: 123.1ov, 24w @ 18avg.

2017/18: 46ov, 7w @ 21.85avg.

What perks my antenna up with Conway and Jamieson is their multi-format prowess. Conway has scored his 379 runs in three Tests with a strike-rate of 50 and that's in alignment with a First-Class strike-rate of 55.79 across 111 games. Move into T20I cricket and Conway cruises along at 151.11sr in T20I and 129.74 in T20 cricket where he's helped Wellington dominate the Super Smash.

Jamieson battled some hefty injuries early in domestic cricket career and his appearances were a bit sporadic between formats as well as between seasons. Through all of this Jamieson went from extremely effective FC bowling to kinda ridiculous T20 work as he took 7w @ 14.71avg in the 2017/18 Super Smash and 22w @ 12.77avg in the 2018/19 Super Smash; two consecutive summers taking a wicket every 10 balls in the Super Smash.

I was equally as curious about Blackcaps in foreign conditions as I was about Jamieson dealing with the Indian Premier League pressure. Jamieson finished as the best kiwi bowler in this year's IPL with 9w @ 24.55avg and currently has a 2021 Test record of 21w @ 13.85avg. Conway and Jamieson weren't just fantastic in England, they have both been multi-format monsters for a while now and all their work prior is being translated to international cricket.

Another nugget that has stuck with me from last summer is the winning vibe from Canterbury. Tom Latham didn't pass 50 in the three Tests just gone, Henry Nicholls started with a 61 at Lord's and only batted three times after that (23, 21, 7). For these two, the Lord's Test was their first competitive game since the Plunket Shield back in early April when they wrapped up a Plunket Shield championship to go with their Ford Trophy championship. Here's what these two did in helping Canterbury do the double...

Plunket Shield

Tom Latham: 7inns, 365 runs @ 52.14avg.

Henry Nicholls: 4inns, 229 runs @ 57.25avg.

Ford Trophy

Tom Latham: 6inn, 280 runs @ 70avg/113.82sr.

Henry Nicholls: 5inns, 365 runs @ 121.66avg/91.93sr.

Two unsung heroes in the WTC perfectly executed the dip down to domestic cricket last summer and neither partakes in the Blackcaps diet of T20I cricket. While the Blackcaps greatness is easy to assess in some of Aotearoa' all-time legends, the real insights come from exploring how new players step up with ease, how the Blackcaps have owned England and how these two Cantabs move between dominant winners for Canterbury and Test cricket job-doers. WTC glory is the tip of the iceberg and this iceberg is still growing underneath the water.

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Peace and love.