New Zealand’s head coach Gary Stead has on Wednesday, December 4, admitted Jeet Raval’s harrowing form with the bat but has backed the opener to bounce back to his form.

The left-hander contributed 19, 5, and 0 in New Zealand's 1-0 series win over England on Tuesday at home, while he has a combined 88 runs in his last 10 innings since notching his maiden Test century against Bangladesh in February to his name.

However, Raval's run of poor form could be the major concern for New Zealand, but Stead believes that the 31-year-old is still their best option to counter the Australian pace battery comprising of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the upcoming Tests.

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Ahead of the three-match Test series in Australia, the Black Caps coach has confirmed that Raval will open innings with Tom Latham against the in-form Kangaroos. As per reports in Fox Cricket, Stead said in Hamilton, “Jeet didn’t have a strong series but we’ve got confidence in him as an opening bat, he’s got a very good record with Tom and they’ve forged a really strong partnership for us.”

He signed off by saying, “He eats into a good number of balls – 75 balls on average – and he's done it over a good period of time so far. I'm confident he can get us away to the start that we want.”

Noteworthy, the Test series will get underway with the first Test on December 12 in Perth, which will be a day-night affair, followed by the second and third matches on 26 December and 3 January respectively. 

(With Fox Cricket Inputs)