The New Nation - Internet Edition

TigerCricket.com, Dhaka

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori spoke about his team's prospects in Bangladesh during the official media conference of the Black Caps at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday. Excerpts from the media session follow:

Question (Q): Your team had comprehensively beaten Bangladesh in the Test and one-day series in New Zealand last December-January. Do you expect a similar result this time around also?

Daniel Vettori (DV): I think most countries who come to Bangladesh know that they are in for a difficult time. Their record may not be great but they have Mortaza (Mashrafe), Shahadat (Hossain) and Abdur Razzak and it is a nice bowling line-up and in their own conditions they are going to be a formidable opposition for us. We expect to win the series but we also know that it is going to be a tough challenge.

Q: How much do you think players signing for the Indian Cricket League would hurt Bangladesh in this series?

DV: I understand the only player missing is Aftab Ahmed. That's obviously a loss but the rest of the team remains pretty much what we faced in New Zealand

Q: What kind of wickets are you expecting here and how do you plan to cope with that?

DV: Probably a typical Sub-Continent wicket. I think it will have plenty of runs in it and as it wears it will start to take some turn. I think we got that covered with myself and Jeetan (Patel) and guys like Scott Styris and maybe Jesse Ryder would bowl stock seamers. We are pretty comfortable with the conditions and it is like anywhere you turn up you have to adapt to what's going on. Bangladesh know their conditions better than anyone and it is up to us to make sure that we are on the same level as them.

Q: Last time you bowled in Bangladesh in a Test series you had take 20 wickets in two matches. Do you expect to cause similar damage in this series also?

DV: We came across two pretty good wickets for bowling spin on. We put ourselves in strong positions and there were some good batting performances. So if we can repeat the same model here and put up some big scores and hopefully win on the fourth or fifth day then obviously there will be a chance to do it again.

Q: Given Bangladesh's recent struggle in getting results do you think New Zealand would win easily?

DV: It looks like that from the results so far but if you look at the Bangladesh players from an individual level you have got some guys who have performed at the world stage. The captain Mohammad Ashraful we all know can play and on his day he can be a world beater. Also I have mentioned they have a good bowling line up. Their reputation or their results may not be what they wanted but we still look at them individually and they are exciting. If we are not on top of our game then they can upset us. That's the thing we are trying to avoid here.

Q: You have arrived here almost a week before schedule. Has that helped?

DV: We have one warm-up and the one-dayers before we head off straight into the Tests. It is a nice build up. The conditions may be a little foreign for us I guess because it is still very cold back home but we are adapting to it.

Q: Are you going for a clean sweep in the series?

DV: We have come here expecting to win so nothing less than that would work for us but we are not going to underestimate Bangladesh. Obviously winning the one day series 3-0 would make us number two in the world and that would be very special.