New Zealand have put the disastrous series against Bangladesh two years ago behind them ahead of their opening match at the cricket World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.

Opener Martin Guptill says the Black Caps won’t take their lower-rated opponents lightly in the group match at Pallekele on Friday.

However, that motivation wasn’t driven by the humbling 4-0 one-day international series loss in Bangladesh in October 2010 – the last time the teams met.

Instead, New Zealand are simply wary of the nature of the abbreviated game.

With two wins from two pool games the only guarantee of advancing to the Super Eight playoff stage, every match becomes a cut-throat affair. Their other group opponents are Pakistan on Sunday.

“Twenty20 cricket is unpredictable. It only takes one person to take the game away from the other side,” Guptill said on Thursday.

“Bangladesh first up is going to be a very tough game and we can’t take them for granted. They’ve got some world class players in their side and we have to treat them with a bit of respect.”

Guptill says his team are reading more into their one-off Twenty20 defeat of India in Chennai last week than the embarrassing Bangladesh ODI series result.

“That was two years ago, we can’t really go back to that,” he said.

“We have to go with what we’ve had in the last couple of weeks.

“The way we played spin in that Twenty20 against India, if we can go out and play exactly the same way as we did then I think we’re going to get the runs on the board that we need.”

New Zealand have since lost warmup games against Australia and South Africa.

A bout of illness struck the team in Colombo this week, forcing pace bowler Tim Southee and batsman Rob Nicol to delay their travel by a day while recovering.

New Zealand have fond memories of the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium venue, having hammered Pakistan there in last year’s ODI World Cup, with Guptill scoring 57 and Ross Taylor a cracking 131.

AAP