The 1989-90 series in New Zealand was my debut tour, after I had been on standby for the preceding four-Test series in Pakistan. I was apprehensive, but also glad to be playing with the likes of Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin, and against my idol Richard Hadlee, whose posters donned the walls of my room.

The New Zealand squad was a formidable one – John Wright, Martin Crowe, Andrew Jones, Ian Smith, Danny Morrison and John Bracewell were all quality players. Our tour started with a match at New Plymouth, an extremely scenic venue. I didn't make the playing XI, but Vivek Razdan, the third seamer, had a poor game, and I was in for the next match, against Otago. I grabbed the opportunity and took three wickets, immediately staking my claims for the Test team.

Apart from the strength of the opposition, one other factor that worked against us was our coach Bishan Bedi's extra emphasis on drills and fitness. That took its toll on youngsters like me, who were not used to such a rigorous regime. Eventually this affected my performance during the series, as I was mentally tired and at times and could not apply myself completely.

Another factor that bothered me was the Kookaburra ball. I hadn't bowled with them ever, and was more used to the English balls, having played three years of grade cricket in England. The Kookaburra's lack of seam took a lot of getting used to. The only plus point was that the ball swung all day.

I imagined the pitches in New Zealand to be bouncy, but found that they were more spongy, and while they afforded some movement, it wasn't at a sharp pace. It was a significant improvement from the flat Indian tracks though.

And as has happened with the present Indian team, we were comprehensively beaten in the first Test at Christchurch, where we lost by 10 wickets. I got just one wicket, cleaning up Mark Greatbatch's middle stump, but I bowled a consistent length and line. I also scored a gritty 24 in the second innings, helping India avoid an innings defeat.

One of the highlights of the match was Hadlee grabbing his 400th victim when he had Sanjay Manjrekar bowled. Later, we went to the New Zealand dressing room to congratulate him. At that time he was launching his book, Rhythm and Swing, of which I got a personally autographed copy. The book became a good teacher to swing bowlers like me over the next many years.

Rain was a major dampener in the second Test at Napier, but the final one, at Auckland, was played on the most seamer-friendly wicket of the series. I had a great start to the match, grabbing four wickets. Kapil and Manoj had a wicket apiece too, as New Zealand's top-order fell away in a trice. Then, Bedi's flawed drill-routine – he made me bowl for 40 minutes before start of play – proved to be my undoing. I ran out of steam, and New Zealand recovered from 85 for 6 to post 391.

Smith made the most of the short boundary on the leg side, and some close calls which went his way, to score an incredible 173, scotching our hopes of levelling the series. Azhar played a brilliant knock, and I got the chance to register my maiden half-century in first class cricket. In fact, I didn't even have a bat at that time, and borrowed one from Gurcharan Singh.

The final leg of our tour was the Rothman's Cup tri-series, with Australia being the third team. We weren't the favourites, but our famed batting line-up was expected to challenge the bowling strength of the other two teams. Sadly, the batting never took off. Our second match against Australia at Christchurch said it all: we restricted their strong batting line-up to just 183, and yet failed to chase the target.

On hindsight, I felt there was plenty of complacency among the senior players, who often took their places in the team for granted. Also, some of the experienced cricketers like Krisnamachari Srikkanth, Ravi Shastri and Vengsarkar were dropped just before the series (Vengsarkar later joined the team, replacing the injured Navjot Sidhu). So the squad to New Zealand had many new faces, and the expectations weren't high. A defensive mindset and the failure of the senior members played its part in making sure that the New Zealand tour ended up being a dampener.

Atul Wassan was a medium-pacer who played 13 Tests for India in the early 1990s. He was talking to Nagraj Gollapudi.

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