Black Caps coach Gary Stead says his team has had their confidence dented after their series loss to Australia but he isn't going to make drastic changes for their upcoming clash with India because of it.
Stead spoke to reporters today after the Black Caps were handed a 3-0 series loss on day four of the third Test in Sydney by Australia yesterday, saying the tough tour required some reflection from everyone.
"First of all, we were outplayed by a very good Australian side," Stead said.
"[Captain] Kane [Williamson] said it yesterday - they applied pressure to us and we certainly didn't handle it as well as what they did back to us as well.
"It's really disappointing. I think everyone in the team is hurting and hurting a lot around it - we wanted to perform better than this and Australia didn't allow us to."
Stead said the series loss brought the team back down to earth after they rose to No.2 in the ICC's Test rankings.
"I think there's no doubt the team has probably taken a bit of a confidence knock as everyone does when this happens when you're over here but I think we need to go back to thinking that we've played some very, very good Test series in New Zealand.
"After this, that's still likely to take a small chink in the armour but we've got to go back and regroup, dress ourselves down a bit, have a look in the mirror and ask ourselves 'how do we get better?'
"No doubt about it, India are equally a strong team as well so the challenge that they'll bring will be big for us."
Stead said that form in New Zealand was one reason he wasn't prepared to make drastic changes to his squad for India's upcoming tour, which features five T20s, three ODIs and two Tests.
The coach also said there simply wasn't a large pool to choose from for replacements.
"It would be silly to have knee-jerk reactions," Stead said.
"It's not like we have thousands and thousands of cricketers that allows us to make wholesale changes."
India's tour of New Zealand begins on January 24 with the first T20.
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