"I want to win a series abroad. That's the main aim of my captaincy career," Ganguly said on Wednesday ahead of the first Test in Wellington.
"The World Cup is coming up and obviously that is important, but this series may be my last chance to win a series abroad and I feel that if we fail, I have failed."
India have not won a Test series away from Asia since 1986 when they beat England and they may see the New Zealand series as a golden opportunity to beat a side, which is again without what many would consider its front-line pace attack.
"They (the New Zealand side) don't hold as many terrors as they used to," said Ganguly of the New Zealanders who are missing all-rounder Chris Cairns, fast-medium bowler Ian Butler and left-arm swing bowler Shayne O'Connor.
India, however welcome back their main strike bowler, left-armer Zaheer Khan, who injured himself in a warm-up match earlier in the tour.
Zaheer is likely to share the new ball with Ajit Agarkar with Ashish Nehra or Tinu Yohannan the other pace bowler.
Ganguly also has the potential match-winner in off-spinner Harbhajan Singh in the squad who, Ganguly said, can take wickets on the sort of green wicket players expect to see on Thursday.
"The best thing about the sort of pitch we are likely to face is that it will give both sides the chance to take 20 wickets, and that is good."
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, however, played down any significance the pitch may have.
"Expectations can be tough," said Fleming. "You see a green seamer and all of a sudden the bowlers are expected to do damage.
"It's the same with a flat deck for batsmen. One thing you can expect, I suppose, is good entertainment."
While Fleming will attempt to bowl out what is arguably the world's strongest batting lineup twice with a makeshift attack, he does have last year's find of the Australian series, Shane Bond back to lead the bowling.
Bond missed the England series in March but did collect two five wicket bags in the series-winning tour of the West Indies.
Teams:
New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Mark Richardson, Lou Vincent, Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Robbie Hart, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey, Michael Mason (one to be omitted).
India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sanjay Bangar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Tinu Yohannan (one to be omitted).
