After completing a remarkable seven-year stint as head coach of New Zealand, Gary Stead officially stepped down from the role in early June. Now, in a recent exclusive conversation with CricBlog, Stead reflected on his coaching journey, calling New Zealand’s historic 3-0 Test series whitewash over India in India as their “greatest achievement.”
Under Stead’s guidance, New Zealand became the first-ever team to whitewash India in a Test series on their home soil — a feat never accomplished before in the history of international cricket.
While discussing the proudest moments of his tenure, Stead acknowledged the value of winning the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021, but placed the 3-0 victory in India on an even higher pedestal.
“Look, I think any time you’re involved with international cricket it’s a great privilege and I guess one of the things I’m most proud of is just seeing the team members grow in their time as well. And look, we’ve had some amazing achievements in the past few years,” Stead said.
“Obviously, the World Test Championship and winning the inaugural World Test Championship was something very special to the team, and making World Cup finals and ICC event finals as well. Yes, we didn’t quite get over the line in those, but still to get there against some quality teams around the world has been fantastic.”
But when it came to the most special moment, Stead had no hesitation. “Probably the greatest achievement I think with this group was winning 3-0 in India. I think that’s probably the hardest thing to do when you consider things around the world and things you’re going to try and achieve. And for us to win all the three Tests will be something that’s probably right up there with the best achievements with this team in history.”
“We were prepared to take probably more risks than what we might have in the past” – Gary Stead
Reflecting on the preparation for that series, Stead explained how learning from a recent 2-0 Test series loss in Sri Lanka shaped their game plan against India.
“I think in a way when you look back at that series… losing the toss in the first game was pretty crucial as well. We would’ve batted first but the ball did a lot more than what we were expecting early on, and I guess to get that jump on India in that first Test was fantastic.”
“We had gone to Sri Lanka and lost 2-0, but we’d had 2-3 bad sessions which we identified. If we’d got them right, then the series could’ve been very different. So we had a game plan around our batting in particular — to try and put pressure on their spinners and not let them settle into any kind of rhythm.”
Stead revealed that the Kiwis were willing to take more risks than usual to stay on top of India’s spinners. “We were prepared to take probably more risks than what we might have in the past to try and put the Indian spinners under pressure, and we felt we’d be able to hold our own.”
On the bowling front, Stead said the key was discipline and consistency. “From a bowling perspective, as long as we were in good areas for long periods of time… we knew the pitches were going to be difficult to bat on. So it was really about applying pressure for long periods.”
He acknowledged that winning the toss in the second and third Tests helped their cause, allowing them to bat in the best conditions. “In the second and third Test, we were lucky that we did win the toss and got the better of the surfaces.”
Finally, Stead credited his team’s ability to win crucial moments in tight matches. “It was an enthralling series because I think that all the Tests could’ve gone either way at different points. I guess we won some crucial moments and it was an amazing feeling — something that no one else in the world has managed to do, which is really special,” Stead concluded.
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