Kane Williamson, the top-order batsman and captain of the New Zealand white-ball cricket team, has not given up on the possibility of playing a part in his team’s 50-over World Cup campaign in India later this year.
Williamson sustained a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while fielding for the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 opening match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and underwent surgery in early April. Following the surgery, he returned to New Zealand for further rehabilitation.
The expected recovery time for an ACL injury is around nine months, which would likely rule him out of the upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup in India, scheduled to start in early October and run until mid-November. Earlier in April 2023, Blackcaps coach Gary Stead had acknowledged that it is ‘unlikely’ Williamson will be available for the tournament.
“It’s really just meeting milestones as we go. It’s unlikely that he will be available, but we certainly don’t want to rule out a person of his class and calibre and the things that he brings to this team too early in case there is that chance,” Staed was quoted as saying by Stuff.co.nz.
Despite the injury setback, Williamson remains defiant about his chances of being ready in time for the World Cup. He has refused to rule himself out of contention and is focused on gradual day-by-day improvement in his rehabilitation.
“The focus is just on each day, each week and not getting too far ahead of myself, because it’s perhaps on the unlikely side expectations. Naturally in my mind, there’s a level of interest because the timings aren’t drastically far apart, but there’s a lot of work to do before that being a potential reality,” Williamson told Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine.
While acknowledging his progress, Williamson emphasized that his priority is to ensure the knee mends properly before considering a return to the pitch for the World Cup in India.
“I’m just trying to keep it week-to-week at the moment. I‘m making progress, but I’m not putting a timeline on anything. I haven’t had such a long-term injury before but talking to other people that have, the journey is a bit of a long one so if you look too far ahead it can probably become a little bit daunting,” the Blackcaps white-ball skipper said.
Despite the upcoming World Cup, the 32-year-old asserted that his prioritizing regaining full fitness over rushing for the mega event.
“I haven’t thought too much about that. I don’t know what the rulings are around that from a squad perspective. But the focus for me is getting it right regardless of the tournaments that are ahead. It’s within any athlete’s want to return as quickly as possible but not compromise the effort that goes in to make sure it’s strong and ready,” Williamson concluded.
The New Zealand skipper was instrumental in his side qualifying for the final in the 2015 and 2019 limited-over World Cup. He was also the Player of the tournament in 2019 marquee event, scoring 578 runs at a staggering average of 86.57, including two centuries.
