T20 World Cup 2024: Gary Stead breaks silence on Kane Williamson's and Devon Conway's availability for New Zealand

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead seems to be in a tricky situation with his players who are going to be a part of the side for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. 

The Kiwis are not in line to play even a single warm-up game to prepare for the challenge in the USA and West Indies but Gary Stead is alright with it. New Zealand are among the teams that have not won the T20 World Cup even a single time despite reaching very close on several occasions. 

The Blackcaps, led by Kane Williamson, had a golden opportunity to win the title during the 2021 edition but their Trans-Tasmanian rivals Australia denied them. Then during the 2022 edition, the Kiwis bowed out of the semi-final stage by losing to eventual runners-up Pakistan by 7-wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 

Gary Stead highlights tough conditions in the West Indies 

While speaking to ESPNcricinfo recently, Gary Stead expressed his hopes about players arriving in good form to join the national side for the T20 World Cup. The New Zealand head coach was asked about the team's preparatory camps in the West Indies and how they are going to make the players ready for the challenge.

Gary Stead started off by firstly highlighting that the conditions in the West Indies are never easy for any team to start off with. Getting the team together on the island of Trinidad is not going to be easy and the lack of warm-up games makes it more tough. The 2021 runners-up will be playing 3 of their 4 group games in Trinidad while Guyana will host their opening T20 WC match. 

As of now, the Kiwis are the only side other than team India to deny playing any warm-up match. The Indian team still wants to play a single preparatory match for the T20 World Cup 2024 but New Zealand doesn't have that in plans.  

"West Indies is a tough place to get to for a start, so it's not easy to get everyone to Trinidad and Tobago at the same time. For us, we don't have warm-up games." - Stead said via ESPNcricinfo. 

What did Stead say about New Zealand's preparations? 

Gary Stead then revealed that since New Zealand is not playing any warm-up games, he is relying on IPL to help his players arrive in good shape. Players like Matt Henry, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, skipper Kane Williamson, and Lockie Ferguson are all buys in the Indian Premier League summer. 

Other than the experience in IPL, Gary Stead is hoping that the players who played in the CPL can help the team understand the conditions. Steady clearly stated that he would be leaning on those particular players and lastly hoped that the training before their opening clash against Afghanistan would put them in a good frame of mind. 

"There's a number of guys who have been in the IPL for the last two months and we've also recently come off the tour to Pakistan. There's a lot of experience in the group who have played in the CPL before, so we'll be leaning on those guys and making sure the trainings we get prior to the first game puts us in a position of where we want to be." - Gary Stead concluded.