NZ players still discuss World Cup heartbreak, reveals Tim Southee

Tim Southee taking a water break during practice

New Zealand are about to take on Sri Lanka in the coastal country and Kiwi pacer Tim Southee believes that adapting to conditions in Sri Lanka will hold the key for the Kiwis in the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in the Island Nation.

Fresh after playing out the best ever Cricket World Cup final, New Zealand players have still not completely moved on from the heartbreak. New Zealand lost to England by the narrowest of margins as England were awarded the trophy due to a superior boundary count in the match.

Speaking to IANS, Southee said: "We have some guys who were on the last tour to Sri Lanka and we had some success here. So, it's nice to have that experience. But we know that the conditions have changed and we need to adapt to that as quickly as we can."

"It's going to be a tough series in this part of the world. The sub-continent is always a tough place to come, purely because the conditions are quite different from that we are used to. Here (in Sri Lanka), the conditions are different from that of UAE. You get the damp heat and a lot more sweat than UAE. So, we are just acclimatizing to it," said Southee pointing at the difference in conditions between Sri Lanka and UAE, where the Black Caps last played in the subcontinent and defeated Pakistan in the Test series.

New Zealand is coming fresh from their heart-wrenching World Cup debacle where they lost to England in one of the most epic ODI encounters in the final at Lord's on July 14. They lost to hosts on the count of boundary after both the regulation overs and the subsequent Super Over ended in a tie.

Tim Southee feels that the group of players are still trying to coming to terms with the loss, however, they are proud of the way they fared in cricket's showpiece event.

"There are a few guys here who were part of the World Cup. Our focus was there at the ODI format for quite some time and we now have to shift it to Test cricket. There are still conversations about what happened in England and also about what we were able to achieve as a group in those eight weeks," said Southee.

"There's a lot of frustration and other emotions that come to mind. But when we dig deep, we are very proud of the way we represented New Zealand," he added.

The two-match series, will see the two teams beginning their campaign in the ICC World Test Championship.

Southee believes the WTC will add further excitement to Test cricket as it will bring more context to bilateral series.

"World Test Championship is something new and exciting. There are many guys who enjoy playing Test cricket. And so, with the added edge of WTC, Test cricket becomes all more exciting," said Southee.

"It will be nice to go back to Lord's in a couple of years and play the finals."

The top two teams in the World Test Championship will play a final Test at Lord's in 2021.

With inputs from IANS

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