New Zealand head coach Gary Stead retains faith in his team's ability to play spin despite seeing Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal again combine for six wickets in an emphatic India win on Saturday.

Wrist spinners Kuldeep and Chahal claimed four and two scalps respectively as India dominated the first one-day international in Napier and were equally productive at Mount Maunganui, ensuring the tourists comfortably defended a total of 324-4.

Stead knows New Zealand must improve with the bat, but highlighted their recent success against Sri Lanka as proof the Black Caps can flourish against the turning ball.

"It's not that we can't play spin bowling, we've just taken some options that haven't been the best options at times," said Stead in a news conference.

"I have faith in our guys. We played the spin bowling very well against Sri Lanka and they had a lot of spinners, so it's not like we can't, we just haven't done it effectively.

"The two wrist spinners that they [India] have here are very, very effective bowlers. Our challenge is to find a way to be better.

"We haven't built partnerships across the whole top six or seven. That was the strength of what we did so well against Sri Lanka and it's what we haven't clicked and done here yet.

"I guess, as a batting unit, that's going to be our challenge going into the next three games, to build those partnerships. It's got to be the top order that scores the majority of the runs and we haven't done that in the two games as yet."

India all-rounder Kedar Jadhav, who contributed 22 from 10 balls at the end of his side's innings before chipping in with 1-35, hailed the value of Kuldeep and Chahal, describing the pair as "two of our key assets in the middle overs".

"As a team, we back them totally," Jadhav added. "They are two talented wrist spin bowlers and I guess most other teams find it difficult to score against them. If we put runs on the board, batsmen have to take risks against them and that works for us."