Black Caps head into World Cup brimming with confidence

• New Zealand kick off campaign against Sri Lanka in Cardiff
• Tom Latham looking good to make injury comeback

Confidence in the New Zealand camp is sky high ahead of their opening game of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka, according to coach Gary Stead.

The Black Caps are looking to go one better than in the 2015 edition of the tournament in which they went all the way to the final before falling at the last hurdle to Australia.

Ranked fourth in the ODI rankings, and having only missed out on the semi-finals once in the last five World Cups, they are expected by many to be strong contenders for the last four again.

And following two good workouts in warm-up games against India and the West Indies, Stead believes his side are in good shape to kick their campaign off against Sri Lanka in Cardiff.

“We had a couple of great warm-up games, it was good to get the boys back together and playing again as we haven’t been together in two and a half months now,” he said.

“Getting everyone back has been exciting and to have two good blow-out games was just what we needed. You’re always learning and we hadn’t seen the West Indies for a while.

“We learnt about the power and destructive nature that they can play with and they will be a dangerous team, but I was delighted with both of the workouts we had.

“We were put under pressure and we had a good outing against India first up and so all in all I think confidence levels are high going into the World Cup.”

One of the selection questions for New Zealand ahead of their first game surrounds the fitness of wicket-keeper Tom Latham, who is recovering after fracturing his finger earlier this month.

But Stead insists he is happy with the progress Latham has made and while the 27-year-old will continue to be assessed in the build-up to Saturday’s game, the signs are looking positive.

“Training has gone really well and so far Tom has hit all the milestones we wanted him to,” Stead said. “He was taking balls with more heat on them and we were making him dive more.

“We’ll see how he scrubs up on the morning of the game and make sure there are no ill-effects, but things are looking more and more positive for him, it’s a really good sign.

“He’s reached all the milestones we wanted him to and he’s probably slightly ahead of time so that’s really positive from our perspective and we’ve got options there as well.

“It’s the sort of injury that he’s either right or he’s not and broken fingers can happen to anyone at any stage, but he’s an honest guy and if he’s not right he’ll tell us.”

Stead also highlighted the importance of being able to adapt quickly to the different pitches in England, admitting New Zealand cannot rely on their past World Cup success.

“This is a different tournament and different guys,” he said. “Everything we’ve talked about is our ability to adapt and I think we play on eight different grounds during the tournament.

“We have to be able to adapt early and quickly to what’s in front of us. I’m sure the guys will adapt to what’s out there. I believe every team can upset everyone here.”