Kane Williamson to accompany New Zealand team for England tour ahead of ODI World Cup 2023

Kane Williamson has been racing against time to get fit for the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023 and recover from his Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury that cost him the whole season of the Indian Premier League 2023. 

Williamson has been seen practising in nets expected to continue spending his time in rehab in the upcoming weeks to get fit to play and available for the selection of the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023, which is scheduled in India from 5 October to 19 November. The last date to announce the preliminary squads for the teams is 5 September, while the final squad needs to be around the last week of September on 28 September. 

New Zealand cricket team’s head coach Gary Stead remained optimistic for the captain to be fit to play in the coming championship. Gary also took note to mention that the anterior cruciate ligament injury is difficult and the rehab team will help Kane Williamson determine and analyse his presence in the marquee tournament.

Gary Stead on Kane Williamson’s injury

“We will take every measure we can to make sure that we get the medical advice that lines up and he’s where we want to be before we make that call on whether he goes [to India for the World Cup] or not. It’s too early to know,” said Gary Stead. 

“Kane’s working very much on a day-by-day, week-by-week process and we’ve been really clear and careful with him that we don’t look too far ahead and, I guess, get expectations too big or not big enough at times as well. He’s progressed as we’ve hoped and possibly even better in some cases but you know with ACL injuries they can be difficult, and different for every person as well. As I said, we’ll try and get the medical experts around Kane as much as we can to help us make that decision in about three weeks’ time” added Gary Stead. 

“In terms of him being there (England), he’ll be getting a bit of training under his belt, being in and around the squad. Kane’s been to a number of World Cups and he’s been a key player for us for a long, long time. Leaning on his experience as well will be important to the group but alternately it’s about seeing is he going to be ready or not for us and that’s something only time will tell,” concluded Gary Stead.