New Zealand's coach Gary Stead revealed that his team has had "honest conversations" ahead of their critical match against the West Indies at the Twenty20 World Cup. Following a surprising defeat to Afghanistan in their opening game, the 2021 finalists must win their remaining three pool matches to progress.

Their campaign continues with a match against co-hosts West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Wednesday.

"This is essentially like a knockout game. We have got to give it everything we can," Stead told New Zealand media via a video call. "We have to win three games. We have to win them well."

New Zealand suffered an 84-run defeat to Afghanistan, marking their first loss to the Afghans in T20 cricket. Stead mentioned that while there might be some adjustments to the lineup, he aims to avoid extensive changes to prevent the appearance of panic.

"I think one of the dangers is if you chop and change too much, then it looks like you are panicking a wee bit," he said. "We had some pretty honest conversations around the performance."

He emphasized the importance of focusing on the upcoming game without dwelling on the previous loss. "It's a new game. The danger is you take what happened in the last game and bring it into this one. Our challenge is to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and make sure the next performance is something that we should be proud of."

The West Indies, meanwhile, had a shaky start in their opening game but managed a five-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea. They then convincingly defeated Uganda in their second Group C match. Stead highlighted the need to contain the West Indies' powerful batting lineup.

"They're a team that can be unpredictable," he said. "They have a lot of power through their batting order, they are boundary-hitters. Our plans around how we nullify that will go a long way to how the game might play out."