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NZ coach calls on team to move on from recent Test failures

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ANI Wellington [New Zealand]
Last Updated : Nov 15 2016 | 2:28 PM IST

Days after suffering a series whitewash against India, New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson has expressed confidence that his side will not dwell on their past overseas failures and stage a strong comeback in the upcoming home series.

Out of nine Test matches played in 2016, the Kane Williamson-led side have lost six and won only the two matches against Zimbabwe.

In spite of that, Hesson called on his side to move on from the recent defeats and instead aim to fall back on memories of their unbeaten streak at home between 2013 and 2015.

"I think we've won seven out of our 11 Tests at home in the last three years, with a couple of draws and a couple of losses. You do that because conditions are familiar to you, and you adapt quicker than other sides," Hesson was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"We've been stressing the fact that we need to prepare for conditions that we're more familiar with. We've got some experience to draw on over the last three or four years. It's a matter of going through that rather than reliving India. Conditions over there were significantly different to what we're going to face over here," he added.

Kiwis' batsmen have had a particularly torrid tour of India, with none of them managing to notch up a century across three Tests. Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the one to wreak havoc on the visitors, having shared 41 wickets between them.

Hesson said that although his side failed to adapt well in the Indian conditions, they have rebounded mentally since that series.

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"The conditions are here very different, so the skills that is required is different. We acknowledge that we didn't adapt as well as we needed to in India. Hence, we underachieved, especially with the bat. Here, I'm very confident the guys know the conditions," he said.

"There was a period of having to deal with dented confidence, but that was some time ago. At the time we needed to dwell on some of the areas we hadn't performed well in, and we've done that. Then we need to move on - that's the nature of international cricket. When you perform and you win easily, you don't dwell on that either. You move on," the 42-year-old added.

Hesson's comments came ahead of the two-match Test series against Pakistan, starting from Thursday at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

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First Published: Nov 15 2016 | 2:15 PM IST

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