New Zealand will be without their regular captain Kane Williamson when they launch their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign against England in Ahmedabad on October 5. Williamson is yet to fully recover from a knee injury and New Zealand are wary of risking him for the rigours of international cricket.
The 33-year-old hurt his knee while fielding during the IPL 2023 opener between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings in April and hasn’t played competitive cricket since.
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However, will be part of their warm-up fixture against Pakistan today but only take part as a batter.
“Right from the start we’ve taken a long-term view on Kane’s return to play,” New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said on Friday.
“His recovery is tracking well and it’s now a matter of making sure he can cope with the rigours and intensity of international cricket. We’ll continue to take a day by day approach to Kane’s rehabilitation and certainly won’t be putting any pressure on him to return before he is ready,” he added.
Williamson was picked in New Zealand’s squad despite the injury concern with the team hoping him to get fit during the tournament.
Williamson had said he’s feeling better before the team’s departure to India.
It’s just wanting to progress [with] what I am doing now – the running, the fielding, and also time in the middle with the bat. The load is going to keep increasing, so there is a little bit of an unknown. But it has felt pretty good really in the last few weeks, [I’m] hoping it continues to feel like that. But we’re definitely looking to touch on more stuff, [and] introducing myself into the game mode, which is something which we haven’t had the opportunity to do,” Williamson said.
New Zealand, who finished runners-up in 2019, will take on defending champions England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the tournament opener this time around.
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