It Will Be A Tight Crossover – Gary Stead Hopeful Of New Zealand IPL-Bound Players' Participation In The England Test Series

New Zealand National Cricket Team head coach Gary Stead is hopeful of the IPL-bound players’ participation in the England Test series in June.

Overall 12 New Zealand players – Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Tim Seifert, James Neesham, Finn Allen, and Glenn Phillips – have bagged Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 contracts and they will feature in the tournament, which will be played from March 26 to May 29.

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The aforementioned Kiwi players will be missing the ODI series against the Netherlands. However, they are expected to join the New Zealand team in England for the Test series, which will begin on June 2.

Meanwhile, Gary Stead believes that there will be a “tight crossover” but the players are used to switching from white-ball to red-ball format.

“It will be a tight crossover. If it is that tight it’s not ideal, but it is what it is, the guys are used to it. They’re used to adjusting to different formats quickly, so it will be the same situation. I think there’d still arrive there on the 30th of May or the day after, and they’ve still got three or four days. I think players will be available coming from the IPL final,” Stead told Stuff.

T20 cricket is probably the more ideal format for him to start for us – Gary Stead

The Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson suffered an elbow injury during the series against India last year and since then he has been out of action and he missed the series against Bangladesh and South Africa.

Giving an update on Williamson, head coach Gary Stead said that the Kiwi captain is “going really well” and T20 cricket would be the ideal format for him to make a comeback to cricket. He added that Kane Williamson, who is the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, is expected to be available for selection during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Kane is going really well. He’s hitting balls for about 45 minutes now. The danger we faced through the test series was the worst thing that could have happened for us is he bats for four or five hours and he aggravates it again. That’s why it’s been a progressive loading programme for him. T20 cricket is probably the more ideal format for him to start for us. We’re expecting he will be pretty close to playing right from the start of the IPL.“

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