Team will begin their tour of India with a three-match T20I series in Jaipur, just three days after losing the T20 WC final
Three days after losing the T20 World Cup final to Australia in Dubai, New Zealand’s T20I side is scheduled to face India in the first of the three-match series, in Jaipur. New Zealand will then kick off their World Test Championship defence with two games in Kanpur and Mumbai. The India tour is set to conclude on December 7.
“It’s the first time that I can remember that we’re so quickly into another series immediately at the back end of the T20 World Cup,” Stead said. “It’s definitely tough and challenging but it is what is in front of us. We’ve got nine-ten guys in India already who are preparing for those Test matches, and hopefully we can get up and have a really great performance against India.”
New Zealand will also have to make a call on their regular captain Kane Williamson who has been managing an elbow injury, which flared up during the warm-ups ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Ferguson has since resumed bowling at the nets in Abu Dhabi and Dhabi in addition to training with Tommy Simsek, the physio.
“In terms of Lockie, I think he is pretty close,” Stead said. “We will just make sure we get over there, travel okay and there’s no issues like seizing up on the flight or anything like that. But I’d expect that he’s going to be available for selection, which will be fantastic.
“With all the guys that are going to prepare for the Test matches, we just have to make that call over there – whether we think it’s in the best interests of them and also in the best interests of the team being that the Test matches are more of our priority, I think, in the next month than what the T20 matches will be.”
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo