Thiruvananthapuram New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said his team will rely on their past experience in the subcontinent and their ability to adjust to different conditions to do well in the T20 World Cup. New Zealand played three ODIs and five T20 Internationals against India before the T20 World Cup starting on February 7.

Santner told reporters after the fifth T20 match against India on Saturday, “I think there are some of our players who have played matches in Chennai recently in the IPL or during their career. I think it has been proved in the last few years that the pitch in Chennai is very good.

New Zealand have been placed in Group B along with Afghanistan, UAE, South Africa and Canada in the World Cup. He will play three matches of the group stage in Chennai and one match in Ahmedabad. Of these, two of its matches will start at 11 am, while the other matches will start at 3 pm and 7 pm. Santner said that New Zealand has enough resources to face this challenge.

“The day’s play is going to be a little different,” he said. Players will have to change their routine. They will have to try to wake up a little earlier. But still this is a new challenge for us. We will go to Ahmedabad to play a match on a red clay pitch and then we will go to Chennai to play a black clay pitch. So it will be a little different.

Santner said, “I think our team will have to adapt itself to different conditions.” We will play three matches in Chennai and the pitch there may be different or the same as the pitch here. And if that happens, we know how to play. Santner said that even though his team lost the T20 series against India by 1-4, it will be of great benefit to the team in the World Cup.

He said, “We were severely tested in this series. We knew this would happen because India is a very good team and has a great record at home. But we prepared very well and that’s why this series was very important for us. “I think the results were a bit disappointing, but in terms of learning, I think everyone, especially the bowlers, learned a lot from this series,” Santner said.