ICC World Cup 2023: Gary Stead Delivers Ground-Breaking Update On Kane Williamson's Participation In 2023 Cricket World Cup

New Zealand head coach, Gary Stead opened up on Kane Williamson’s recovery from injury and said that the team management will be giving him the next two weeks time to prove himself whether he is fully fit or not, and then the Kiwis will be taking a decision to name him in the squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup in India.

Kane Williamson received an injury during the inaugural match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) when the Kiwi tried to save a boundary but later had to leave the field. Following this, Kane Williamson was ruled out of the 16th edition of the IPL.

The Blackcaps are going through a major injury crisis since Michael Bracewell, the star Kiwi all-rounder has also been ruled out of the ODI World Cup due to injury.

New Zealand have reached the final of the ODI World Cup for the last two times but still failed to get a hold of their first World Cup trophy.

While speaking to the reports before the start of the England tour, Gary Stead gave a huge update on the squad if Kane Williamson fails to recover and said that nothing has changed at the moment and the team management will give him all the time to recover.

“We’ve got about two weeks from now until we name that side. Nothing’s changed at the moment, we’re going to give him every chance and use that full amount of time,” the Kiwi head coach said.

He’s back batting in the nets again which is great to see: Gary Stead on Kane Williamson

The New Zealand head coach added that the player is back in the net and progressing well but that there is still a lot of work to do to get back on track.

“He’s in full rehab mode, he’s back batting in the nets again which is great to see. He’s progressing really well, but again there’s a lot of work for him still to do to make sure he gets to where we need him to be. So we’re going to give him the full two weeks to prove where he’s at and for us it’s still a little bit of crystal ball-gazing, where he will be at,” Gary Stead added.

New Zealand will start their ODI World Cup 2023 voyage against England in the inaugural match of the tournament on October 5th at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.