IND vs NZ, 3rd Test: Gary Stead, who is the head coach of New Zealand is quite hopeful that they can qualify for the WTC final by winning all of their next few matches, which also signifies that they are aiming to clean sweeping the three-match Test series against India as the last and the third Test match would be held at the Wankhede stadium on Friday. The Kiwis had won the first edition of the WTC final, where they defeated India in 2021.
At that time as well, the Kane Williamson-led side was in a similar situation, where they had to win four consecutive Test matches and were successful in doing so. The Tom Latham-led side would now be playing one match against the Men in Blue and then a three-match Test series against the Ben Stokes-led side as a part of their ongoing WTC cycle. Stead is optimistic that they can repeat their 2021 heroics. During an interaction with New Zealand reporters, Stead is hopeful that they will get inspired by their WTC performance in 2021.
"The first time we were in the situation of qualifying for the first WTC final, we had to win four tests on the bounce and we managed to," Stead told reporters in the pre-match press conference.
"Hopefully that's something we can lean on and say, 'We've done it before, here's an opportunity to perhaps do something very special again", he revealed.
Adapting to Mumbai pitch key for India series whitewash
The Tom Latham-led side is on the verge of becoming the first team in 24 years to defeat India at home in a Test series as South Africa first did it in 2000. Stead reckoned that they needed to quickly adapt to the pitch conditions in Pune to script history.
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Stead highlighted how difficult it would be to adjust to the red soil conditions in Mumbai since both Pune and Bengaluru used black soil pitches.
"A series win in itself is incredible, but what we want to do is keep trying to get better every game, and we're going to different circumstances now," he added.
"The red clay is very different, so we're going to have to adapt quickly. Our next two trainings are going to be important but for the WTC itself, there's no doubt one more win would certainly help us", he concluded.
India will lock horns with New Zealand for the third and the last Test match, which will be held at the Wankhede stadium, on November 1, Friday.