Southee seeks to shift focus to India

WELLINGTON: After he was dropped from the New Zealand team for the new year’s Test against Australia, fast bowler Tim Southee wants to look past the snub and shift his focus on the upcoming India series, which begins on January 24.

New Zealand suffered a heavy defeat in the Test series in Australia, losing it 3-0. After playing in the first two matches, Southee was replaced by Matt Henry in the playing XI. He admitted he was disappointed at the time, but aims to continue contributing to the team’s cause even when not a part of the XI.

“It’s disappointing. You’re gutted every time you’re left out. It’s an absolute dream to play for New Zealand and every time you do miss out it hurts, but you’ve got to respect the decisions and try to help out and give back to the team, even when you’re not playing,” he told the reporters ahead of the first T20I. The 31-year-old had bowled nearly 100 overs across the two Tests in Perth and Melbourne and picked up 12 wickets. New Zealand coach Gary Stead had remarked that the reason behind dropping Southee for the third Test was actually his heavy workload. “The workload that Tim has had, not just in the last two tests but if you put the last four together, it’s somewhere around 200 overs in a short period of time, we felt that Matt would have given us a point of difference,” Stead had said. Now with the India series only a couple of days away, Southee wants to put the Test disappointment behind him and help his team bounce back. “We had a big chunk of Test cricket and the guys that were in Australia are reasonably experienced guys … they’ve had tough tours before and they’ve bounced back and the reason why they’ve played for a long period of time is they’ve been able to get through those ups and downs.”