Blackcaps v Australia: Post mortems begin on disastrous test-series capitulation

New Zealand Cricket insists it won't make panicked changes before the India series, despite key figures underperforming against Australia.

But the fallout from their disastrous tour has begun, with suggestions the Blackcaps were overconfident and their preparation was flawed.

Former NZ captain Ken Rutherford thinks the team was on the back foot from the beginning.

"I think it was a huge oversight not having a warm up game," he told Newshub. "The images we saw were the guys playing beach cricket on Rocknest Island, for goodness sake."

NZ Cricket cited workload, when turning down a warm-up match to get used to Aussie conditions.

The results reflected it.

High performance manager Bryan Stronach is reluctant to change failed selections before next month's India series.

"We've got to take a good hard look at ourselves and not throw the bathwater out with the baby," says Stronach. "We've got to look at what we've done and we've had some success."

The tour highlighted deficiencies in the likes of Mitchell Santner, whose spin bowling has proved ineffective in tests.

The batters hardly fired a shot either. In six innings, with only four fifties and a solitary century to Tom Blundell.

"Ultimately, we didn't score enough runs in those conditions and that's the long and short of it," says Stronach.

Rutherford is more scathing. 

"I think the fellas got caught in a sense of over confidence," he says.

Rutherford thinks most scrutiny will fall on coach Gary Stead, whose contract is up in September.

"Past New Zealand sides have gone there and lost, sometimes pretty badly, but there was an element of throwing in the towel there," he says. 

"Under Gary Stead's tutelage, that's not something he'll be terribly proud of."

Australia piled on the pressure, and now the Indian series could be career defining for players and management.