Blow to New Zealand as captain Kane Williamson ruled out of World Cup opener against England

New Zealand will be without their regular captain, Kane Williamson, in the World Cup curtain-raiser against England on October 5 in Ahmedabad. Kane, who continues to recover from the knee injury he sustained during the IPL opener in March at the same venue, is said to be playing against Pakistan in the side’s first warm-up game on Friday in Hyderabad.

While he will play as a pure batter in both practice matches, emphasising doing some fielding throughout the innings, Kane will sit out of the marquee tie against the defending champions.

In his absence, keeper-batter Tom Latham will lead the Kiwis into their first match of the World Cup, head coach Gary Stead confirmed.

The coach said the team management is tracking Kane’s injury very closely and is happy with the progress.

They, however, don’t want Kane to rush into attaining full fitness and rather will take it day by day.

"Right from the start we've taken a long-term view on Kane's return to play," New Zealand's head coach Gary Stead said. "His recovery is tracking well, and it's now a matter of making sure he can cope with the rigors and intensity of international cricket. We'll continue to take a day-by-day approach to Kane's rehabilitation and certainly won't be putting any pressure on him to return before he is ready."

Coming from a long injury layoff, Kane trained a little with the team on their tour to England, preparing himself for the World Cup showdown. As he nears full fitness, Kane expressed his desire to stay with the team and give himself every chance to get in time for most games during the event.

"It's just wanting to progress [with] what I am doing now - the running, the fielding, and also time in the middle with the bat," Williamson had said ahead of the team's departure to India earlier this week.

"The load is going to keep increasing, so there is a little bit of an unknown. But it has felt pretty good really in the last few weeks, [I'm] hoping it continues to feel like that. But we're definitely looking to touch on more stuff, [and] introducing myself into the game mode, which is something which we haven't had the opportunity to do,” Skipper added.

While New Zealand will take on Pakistan in their first warm-up tie in Hyderabad on Friday, they will take on South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

Kane is likely to get a clearance certificate for New Zealand’s second World Cup match against the Netherlands on October 9.

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