Two cricket questions to consider today. Just how good are the Black Caps and does thrashing the #1 test side at home make up for the mauling we took in Australia?

The answer to the second part is no while the answer to the first is, we don't know! 

India were absolutely pummelled here in New Zealand.

They couldn't cope with the conditions, failed miserably with the bat, were statues against our magnificent bowling and barely managed a whole day's play without fielding at some stage -  sound familiar?

It should because the Indian series here was virtually a mirror image of what Ozzie did to us over there. Yes our bowling group was brilliant on our own surfaces, but were we that unplayable? 

Conditions, cold and windy, were nothing like the Indians are used to but adapting to foreign climes is part of the challenge for any touring  party isn't it? And it's certainly something Kohli's side coped with well enough when doing the unthinkable and beating Australia away just a summer ago.

Following the 5-0 T20 series win against us the Indians didn't win another game on tour losing 3-0 in the 1-dayers before being swept 2-0 in the tests. Significant also that, just like the hammering we got from Ozzie, neither of the tests went close to lasting the  full 5 days.

No they weren't what you'd call intimidated, but just like the Black Caps over the New Year, looked completely psyched out. With talisman captain Virat struggling for any form it seemed to throw their whole batting lineup into disarray with no stickability evident in totalling over 200 just once in four innings. Again, does it make up for that disastrous Ozzie series? No.

But what say we had Trent Boult fit and available and in his current form for all 3 tests and Blundell opening? Stop it, don't do it, not worth thinking about. So what have we learned? Perhaps that we can take as much away from one series won as we do from the one we so badly lost.

No we're not a bad team. And no we aren't the best team. But, on our day on our own conditions, we aren't far from it either.