New Zealand head coach Gary Stead on Wednesday said that the Black Caps will look to banish ghosts from past at England’s hallowed Lord’s cricket ground and prevail in the World Test Championship final later this year.

Scheduled from June 28 at the Lord’s, the decider will include New Zealand, who clinched their berth after Australia pulled out from the Test tour to South Africa this week due to a coronavirus scare, AFP reported.

The London venue witnessed the Black Caps’ heart-breaking defeat in the ODI World Cup final against England in 2019.

With scores tied after a nerve-wracking Super Over, an obscure tie-break rule – which has since been scrapped – meant the hosts were conferred the trophy because they had scored more boundaries than the Black Caps.

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New Zealand only have four wins from 23 completed matches at the ground in all formats, with only a single Test victory.

Stead insisted history will not weigh on his players as they aim to become the first Test team to be crowned world champions under the new International Cricket Council (ICC) format.

“What’s happened back in 2019 has been and gone. We can’t change it, we can’t do anything about it. Now it’s about us moving to what’s in front of us. I think our guys are professional enough and skillfull enough that they’ll be able to do that,” said Stead. 

While refuting 2019 was on his team’s minds, Stead acknowledged to having a peek at the rule book to see what would happen if the World Test Championship final was tied.

“There’s definitely no Super Over. If the match is a draw or a tie there are joint winners,” he added.

With the ICC’s complex qualification criteria, New Zealand’s opponent in the final has not been decided, including India.

Stead refused to nominate a preferred opponent, saying they were all great Test-playing nations.

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“I just think it’s magnificent we get the opportunity to play one of them,” he said.

New Zealand currently top the Test rankings but Stead said his veteran players reminisced when they fell to eighth in the world after a loss to South Africa in 2018, after being all out in the first innings for just 45.

He also said that winning the Test championship would be a fitting testament to their improvement.

“They’ve seen some dark days but turned that around. It would rank up there with some of the best achievements of their career,” he added.