NZ aim to put Bangladesh behind them

New Zealand were recently crushed 4-0 by Bangladesh in their one-day series and captain Daniel Vettori is hoping that the change in format to Test cricket, and the addition of new personnel for this Indian tour, will help his side erase those bad memories. New Zealand arrived in Ahmedabad today for a three-Test and five-ODI tour that begins on November 4 at Motera. It is their first bilateral visit since 2003.

"The Bangladesh tour was extremely disappointing," Vettori said. "We will try to rectify that in India. It's a fresh start for us: It's Test cricket and we have new players here and they have not been affected by what happened in Bangladesh."

New Zealand weren't allowed to shirk off Bangladesh from their psyche, or the comments from Mark Greatbatch, the selector and coach, who lashed out at his players recently, in what was otherwise a dull opening press conference. After failing to win a game against Bangladesh, Greatbatch said, "When you play badly like that you've got to front up. It's very devastating. We played like d****, really."

In an another moment of candour, Greatbatch had also said that, "India have only lost one of their last 13 Tests in India, so if you're gonna ask me what a good result is I would take two draws."

He was reminded of both in the press conference today. He brushed off the comments by saying that it was in the past and that the players are eager to do well in this series. He responded to his own "two draws" comment (does that mean he was looking to lose 0-1?) by saying that, "We are here to win. As Dan said, we have some new players in and this is a great opportunity for all of them. We didn't play to our standards against Bangladesh but we have to move on from there. And do well against India."

He then added, "It won't be easy." Indeed.