'We can bounce back with small adjustments' - McCullum

New Zealand are looking to their own recent past for inspiration to bounce back from their heavy defeat in the first Test and challenge for the series against Pakistan. On the eve of the second Test in Dubai, their captain Brendon McCullum said the team was seeking to draw hope from their recent tour of the West Indies, where they lost the second Test but came back in the third to seal a 2-1 series win.

"I guess one of the dangers when you suffer such a tough defeat as we did in the last game is we start to try and overhaul things which don't need overhauling," McCullum said. "One of the things we have prided ourselves on is making subtle adjustments when we have found ourselves caught short in previous series and previous games.

"I look back for us at the West Indies series where we lost heavily in the second Test in Trinidad and we were able to respond with a really good performance in the third Test to win the series, so you start talking about those things in the groups."

Pakistan have won their last three Test matches - two against Australia and the first Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi - by massive margins, and each time they won the toss and batted. McCullum said New Zealand were 'desperate' to end their opponents' run of luck with the coin, but said the players have learned enough from their first-Test defeat to be able to cope even if they would have to bowl first again.

"Pretty important toss no doubt, we desperately would like to win the toss and be able to do what we want to do first," he said. "Obviously it swings the odds slightly, but we have hopefully made some adjustments to what happened in the last game and if we do get presented with the opportunity to bowl first then we'll hope to have made some improvements from our last effort there. I'm confident the guys can step up in this game."

New Zealand's batsmen struggled against the spinners in Abu Dhabi, but McCullum said that wasn't the only area they would need to improve in, and highlighted tackling reverse swing as an important adjustment they would have to make.

"We looked at where we were slightly deficient in the last game, swing actually played quite a big part in the last game as well, so we've just tried to do a little bit of tweaking in terms of how we go about playing reverse swing," he said. "Sometimes it is just a mental shift as well, you just have to just reaffirm your defensive areas against reverse swing and also the dangers that are imposed and once you can factor that in you can start to devise a game plan and the same thing with spin. I'm confident our game will be up a notch from the previous game where we were clearly second."

Asked about the pitch, McCullum said he hadn't looked at it yet, but reckoned there would be no change from the slow, dry conditions that have characterised the season so far in the UAE.

"Not yet [looked at the surface], but I am pretty sure I know what it is going to look like," McCullum said. "I spoke to someone the other day and they were like, 'It's going to be juicy'. I asked, 'Juicy as in seam?' He said 'No, no, juicy for spin'. That doesn't surprise me. I'm guessing it will be a spin-heavy surface, that's what you expect when you come to this part of the world."

Pakistan will be without the injured Ahmed Shehzad, whose first-innings century was a big factor in their winning the Abu Dhabi Test. McCullum warned against thinking that Shehzad's absence would weaken Pakistan's top order.

"Shehzad, his innings the other day against us probably sucked the life out of us a little bit, the way that he batted for such a long period of time," McCullum said. "So for him not to be present in this game, we are going to have to make sure we are well researched on the guys that come in and ensure we have got game plans to suit. I'm sure whoever comes in is going to be a very good player."