It’s a massive blow for New Zealand Cricket as captain Kane Williamson will miss the opening game of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup against the defending champions, England. There are only three days left to start the ODI World Cup, which takes place in India.
New Zealand will face off against the defending champions, England, in the World Cup opener. Unfortunately, captain Kane Williamson will skip this game because of his injury.
Williamson to miss the first game
The Cricket Board of New Zealand confirms captain Kane Williamson will not take part in their very first game of the World Cup. New Zealand’s head coach Gary Stead said, “Right from the start we’ve taken a long-term view on Kane’s return to play. 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.”
Kane Williamson got injured (ACL) during the first match of the IPL 2023. He had undergone surgery, which kept him out of the team for a long six months. However, he continued his rehab in England along with the national team.
There was a concern that Williamson could miss the World Cup. But he got a place in the 15-man squad and played the warm-up game against Pakistan as a specialized batsman. The captain did a fantastic job in the first warm-up game as he scored 54 from 50 balls. However, he will play the 2nd warm-up against South Africa as a specialized batsman. tomorrow. But the team doesn’t want to take risk by deploying him in the opening game of the World Cup against England.
Williamson is not under pressure to return to the squad, according to New Zealand’s head coach Gary Stead. He said, “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.”
Kane Williamson also talked about his injury problems before flying to India last week. “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,” said the captain.
Williamson added, “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.”
However, Tom Latham will captain the team against England in the absence of Kane Williamson.
