‘Winning away from home is becoming hard’ - Kane Williamson and Tim Southee list NZ's major area of improvement

While New Zealand were absolutely sensational in 2021, they still lacked in a particular aspect according to Kane Williamson and Tim Southee. Although the Kiwis did go on to win six out of their nine Tests in 2021, most of their wins came at home. The Williamson-led side played four games at home, and won all of them.

However, they only won two of the five Tests which they played outside home. While one was against England at Birmingham, the other was the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) 2021 final at Southampton. Recently, they lost 1-0 against India during the two-match Test series which took place in India.

Thus, the Kiwis skipper and his strike bowler were of the impression that it was important to win away from home. The 31-year-old even drew light on the “Major cricket in one year”. While responding to a question, the 33-year-old pacer went on to say that winning outside the home is something his team can hopefully work on.

It’s great that in some major events, we could go out there and play some really good cricket: Kane Williamson

“As a side, we are continuing to look to get better and grow as a team. I think performing overseas is one thing. In international cricket now, winning away from home is becoming so hard, especially in Test cricket. As a side, that’s an area we hopefully can improve on. We’ve had a little bit of success overseas over the years but that’s somewhere we would like to improve,” said Tim Southee, while speaking to select media during an event organized by Amazon Prime Video.

“I suppose with Covid, there’s been a lot of major cricket in one year. The World Test Championship and then the T20 World Cup. As soon as something finishes, another thing starts. That’s the focus when you’re directly involved in the sport. There’s another T20 World Cup (in 2022) that’s not too far away. There seems to be a lot of cricket (coming up),” said Kane Williamson

“As a side, over the periods of time, we’ve had players come and go and we always try to navigate those challenges each time and move in the right direction. Throughout this year, as a group, we saw a lot of good signs and saw a lot of good days and a lot of tough ones as well; where we saw them as the best opportunity to learn. It’s great that in some major events, we could go out there and play some really good cricket. But we know that the challenges that lie here and preparing for,” he concluded.