Christchurch, Feb. 24: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori knows India are a strong side on paper but is quietly banking on his young brigade to punch above their weight and surprise the world champions in the first of two Twenty20 internationals here on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Vettori spoke about the mood in the Kiwi camp and the likely strategy against the Indians. Excerpts:

On the series: I think it’s going to be a very good one. India have come with a formidable reputation, the one that they’ve earned over the last couple of years with the way they’ve played cricket and obviously they’re ranked higher than us in both forms of the game. But we’ve got a pretty good record. Hopefully those things play in our favour but we also understand this is one of our biggest challenges and obviously coming off Australia was a huge challenge. We are hoping to continue our form from there.

On (selector) John Wright’s role: He’s around the team a lot and we enjoy his experience and are lucky enough to have a fellow who has knowledge about the Indian side (having coached them) and so we’ve been picking his brain for a while. Not just with individual aspects of the players but taking on the Indian team and what things he thought worked in the past when they were successful… if we can replicate that.