New Zealand coach Gary Stead revealed the team’s tactics to whitewash India in the recently culminated Test series. The Kiwis destroyed the Indian side in all three Tests to hand over a record defeat, as it was the first time the home side was losing a Test series on home soil in 12 years.
Kiwis Coach Reveals the Success Mantra vs India
Talking about that, the Kiwis coach revealed some strategies that his team followed to knock off one of the best teams in the world. Stead opined that the initial knock that New Zealand gave to India had worked, and the visitors were successful in holding on to it for a longer time.
“Yeah, very much. I mean, it was around having confidence as a team that we fire a shot at India for a start. Then you try and get on the front foot and then hold that ascendancy for as long as you can. And I thought we were fantastic the way we started in Bengaluru and put India on the back foot, and had a big lead, but they showed their fighting qualities as well. And look, India is an extremely proud nation as well. And I know the loss will be hurting their team as well,” said Stead.
IND vs NZ: Gary Stead Never Believed They Could Whitewash India
Even though it was a dominant win, Stead revealed that they never had believed they could whitewash India. But the confidence that they received from the first win catered for the rest.
“I’m not sure we truly believed that (smiles), but I think when you win the first one, that gives you confidence. And then we expected to get a turner in Pune, and look, we were lucky the two games after that, we won the toss as well. We batted first on a difficult wicket and probably got a competitive total and we bowled very well. And Mitchell Santner was outstanding in Pune, and Ajaz Patel, here in Mumbai, which is fantastic for Ajaz, considering he was born here as well. And so look, I think it was an unexpected three-nil victory, but well certainly take it, though,” said Stead.
India was coming after a 2-0 whitewash win over Bangladesh on home soil. They were the leaders in the WTC rating and came as favorites in the Kiwis match. New Zealand, on the other hand, were coming from getting smoked by Sri Lanka for 0-2 and were considered the underdogs.
But New Zealand were successful in maintaining the momentum that they received in the very first innings of the first match, and that front foot were actually never left. The Kiwis could knock out India in that innings for 46 runs, which was one of the all-time lows of the home side.
To get the latest sports updates and highlights, check out The100Sports, and Follow us on Twitter
