Hesson targets all-round improvement for New Zealand

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has said he will be looking for all-round improvement from his team in the Dubai Test. While his seamers bowled well in Abu Dhabi, they did not look like breaking through, he said, so the blame for the loss could not be squarely laid with the batsmen.

"We've still got a lot of work to do. [Pakistan's rough match aggregate], 740 for 5 shows that our bowling has got a lot of work to do," Hesson said the day after New Zealand lost the Abu Dhabi Test by 248 runs. "I think it's easy from a train-crash point of view to automatically look to the batting, because that's just what's happened, but overall we've been outplayed in all three disciplines. We need to improve and we're well aware of that."

Despite the poor result, Hesson will not look make hasty changes to the team combination, because the eleven that played the first Test already have a feel of the conditions. "I think we'll look at that [the bowling combination], but I think our seamers bowled pretty well here and still never looked like getting a wicket at times, so I don't think necessarily changing people on the bus is going to make a huge difference.

"The guys who bowled here have done well for us over a long period of time, but we need to get better. We need to adapt to conditions, the guys that have faced the conditions out here will be better prepared come Dubai."

Hesson said amid all the issues, opener Tom Latham proved to be a big plus for New Zealand. "Tom Latham I think is a real standout. I think the way he played in the West Indies [was also good], the tempo that he brings to the innings ... He's very calm and I think he carried that on again during this Test match.

"He has got a great temperament to play Test cricket and I think he showed again against a side in foreign conditions how good he can be." Latham was New Zealand's second-highest scorer in West Indies with 288 runs at 48.00 and three half-centuries. New Zealand won that series in the Caribbean, in June this year, but Hesson said it was always difficult for a visiting team to do well.

"Have to respect Pakistan for how they've been getting the opposition under pressure. Getting 500 runs up on the board first up makes it difficult from there. I'm not really [surprised, though, by how Pakistan handled Australia], in these conditions.

"Just like other teams around the world they struggle away from home. I think statistically sides don't win away from home. I think that's because conditions are so foreign, just like when Pakistan tour other nations they have difficulty because they don't have the training hours behind them in those conditions that the home nations have. Pakistan know these conditions well, they've performed very well in these conditions for a long time."