NZ captain Kane Williamson to miss ICC World Cup opener against England due to knee rehabilitation

Senior pacer Tim Southee, who is recovering from surgery on his fractured thumb, will depart for India on Saturday. He is expected to be available for the World Cup opener against defending champions England.

Kane Williamson, who was Player of the Series in 2019, is close to surpassing former captain Stephen Fleming as New Zealand’s leading run-scorer in World Cup matches.

All the 🔟 squads for #CWC23 are now locked in 🔒

Details 👇 https://t.co/ycNJwfJGz2— ICC (@ICC) September 29, 2023

“It’s a huge boost to the team in many areas that Williamson is available,” former coach Mike Hesson said. “Obviously from a batting perspective in India and the ability to get runs over there. And the ability to share leadership. He’s a very calm character and obviously, at a World Cup where there’s tons of pressure and maybe following a poor performance, he’s not the sort of guy who will over-react. He will deal with facts and that’s important in a group where there are a lot of emotional characters.”

“I think we’ve got nine players that have been named who have come from the last World Cup and it’s always great to be able to fall back on that experience in tough moments,” current head coach Gary Stead said.

“Most of the players we have in the squad have been in India as part of the IPL. What you do get in India is a variety of conditions. Some days can be very spin friendly, other days can be very pace friendly so we’ve tried to select a squad that gives us a real balance so that we can move players in and out depending on the environmental conditions.”

While New Zealand won the inaugural World Test Championship, a limited-overs world title has been elusive. It lost to Australia in the final of the 2021 T20 World Cup and to England in the semifinals of that tournament next year.

(With PTI inputs)