T20 World Cup 2021: Tim Seifert Set To Replace Injured Devon Conway In The Final vs Australia, Kane Williamson Confirms

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has confirmed that wicket-keeper batsman Tim Seifert will replace Devon Conway in the playing eleven against Australia for the T20 World Cup final, to be played on Sunday in Dubai.

Conway has been ruled out of the final, and the subsequent T20I series in India, after a bizarre injury: he struck his own hand with his bat after getting dismissed in the semi-final against England.

Kane Williamson acknowledged that Conway will be a big miss from the eleven. The left-hander had scored 129 runs in 6 matches, including a crucial knock of 46 runs in the semi-final. Seifert has played one match in the tournament, against Pakistan, before being replaced by Adam Milne.

“Some of the younger players – they keep coming through in all teams. [They] love to hit the ball out of the park and [are] really exciting talents and someone like Tim Seifert coming in is very much like that. Obviously, the loss of Devon is a big one. He’s been a big part of all formats for us and a disappointing and really freak thing to happen but for us, it’s keeping our focus on the task,” Kane Williamson said on Saturday.

Doing the double would be some achievement: Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson and New Zealand have a chance to do the double of ICC trophies in a single year; they had won the inaugural ICC World Test Championship earlier this year.

The Black Caps skipper is excited about the possibility of doing the double, but stressed that his team should focus on the process and the game, instead of thinking about the final result.

“It’d be some achievement [doing the double]. But where it stands at the moment is there’s a game of cricket to play and for us it’s focusing on that and focusing on our cricket and looking to go out there and implement the things that are important to us. These sort of events are of focus in the calendar and it’s a really exciting opportunity to be here now and looking forward to the match tomorrow,” the 31-year-old added.

While this is the first T20 World Cup final for New Zealand, Australia will appear in the final for the second time, having lost to England in 2010.

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