New Zealand had this match to familiarise themselves with the subcontinent conditions, with the series against Sri Lanka and India coming up. But persistent rain and outfield issues in Greater Noida reduced the first-ever Test between the two teams to a no-show.
“The most disappointing part for us is that we lost the opportunity to be match-hardened and match-ready when we go into our Test match [against Sri Lanka] next week,” Stead said at the post-match press conference. “The guys are really disappointed. It was an opportunity to play Afghanistan. It doesn’t come around that often.
“They have some unique bowlers – it’s always good to get your head around how you face them. The way they play is a little bit different to other countries. It’s always learning what you can do when you get in those match situations.”
The one-off Test was not part of the World Test Championship. However, Stead said the team was left “frustrated”, as the format is “very, very dear to the team’s hearts”.
“Even though it was fine for those two days, there were thunderstorms the nights before and the ground was just too soft and the umpires deemed that unfit to play on,” he said. “So that is sort of out of the players’ hands in a way as well.
“But we were frustrated. We have come here to play cricket and play a Test match and as Jonathan [Trott, Afghanistan head coach] said, Test cricket, certainly to our group of players that is here, that’s very, very dear to their hearts and every Test you get to play in is a big one.
“So regardless of whether it has World Test Championship points or not, that opportunity to get out there for five days, it looked a great surface. The whole block looked fantastic, so it would have been a great match of Test cricket.”
“I don’t make the decisions around the Future Tours Programme and big tours,” Stead said. “But I said it right from the start of coming here, Afghanistan have knocked just about every top team in the world over now. So they’re certainly a force and becoming more and more of a force in world cricket. That’s something for the Afghanistan and New Zealand boards to get their heads around.
“It was our first Test match against Afghanistan and we were really excited about that. They’ve been great competitors of ours over the last few World Cups. We’ve had some great games of cricket.”
“The World Test Championship is alive and well, and we’re currently in third place, and we want to make the finals again,” he said. “We’ve been there once in the past, and we are desperate to get there again. So every test match we play will be an important one.
“The conditions that we face in Galle will be, I’m sure, different to Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai when we come back here again. So it’s still about adapting to the different surfaces where I’m learning from those. But also banking the knowledge you have created in the past even though it’s been a couple of [sessions of] trainings out there, we’d still bank on what we’ve learnt on those sort of pitches.”
Ekanth is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
