New Zealand’s former head coach Gary Stead, who recently parted ways with the team, has said winning the Test series in India in 2024 was his greatest achievement of his coaching tenure. Stead, who was in charge of the team that won the inaugural World Test Championship cycle, beating India in the final said the conditions favoured them in Southampton.
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Last October-November, New Zealand scripted history by becoming the first team to whitewash India at home. The series loss for India, which was their first since 2012, came against all odds as New Zealand won three Tests in Bengaluru, Pune and Wankhede. It is a setback that India still haven’t recovered from, as they have lost Test series in Australia and on the verge of another humbling in England.
Speaking of the series, Stead said it was a blessing in disguise to lose the toss in the first Test at Bengaluru, where on a green top, the Kiwi attack dismissed India for 46. “We lost the toss in the first Test, which was a blessing in disguise because we would have batted as well,” Stead was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “It did feel just a little bit damp on top, but it just took one session to put us right on the front foot. The way Matt Henry and Will O’Rourke bowled that day was fantastic. And then we just went about our play.
“That first Test in Bangalore was a little bit different because the wicket was pretty good. While it nipped early, it did flatten out, and we probably got the best of the batting conditions there. Then it was really a war of attrition after that when we bowled again just to stay in the game and make sure their lead wasn’t too big, because cracks were opening on the pitch, and it could have been pretty difficult in that last innings,” Stead said.
Thereafter, despite India resorting to spin-friendly conditions in Pune and Mumbai, New Zealand spinners outbowled the hosts. Even on the batting front, the Black Caps batting unit showed better application as India failed to win a single Test in the series and were outplayed in all three departments. Stead believed a lot of it was down to their experience of playing in Sri Lanka before the tour, which came very handy in India. “I guess we looked at it and thought, you win one Test in India, it’s as good as what most teams do over there at times. But then we really shifted our attention to Pune and that was a very, very different-looking wicket. We knew it would spin from the very start. But that and then the game in Mumbai is where I think the lessons from Sri Lanka really gave us the opportunity just to be really clear on the way we wanted to play. We won a couple of tosses, which helped. We got probably the best of the conditions. They’re (India) obviously tough to beat over there, their record shows that. For me, it’s probably the greatest achievement of my time from a results point of view that we had,” Stead said.
