Kane Williamson will miss this year's ODI World Cup in India after scans showed that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament on his right knee, and needs to undergo surgery to repair it.
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Veteran New Zealand batter Kane Williamson will miss this year’s ODI World Cup in India after scans showed that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament on his right knee, and needs to undergo surgery to repair it.
Notably, Kane Williamson injured his knee while fielding for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2023 campaign opener against Chennai Super Kings. He was subsequently ruled out of the league and returned to New Zealand to undergo further scans on the knee as well and now it is going to be a lengthy period of recovery and rehabilitation.
“I’ve received great support over the past few days and want to thank both the Gujarat Titans and New Zealand Cricket for that,” Kane Williamson said in a New Zealand Cricket statement. “Naturally it’s disappointing to get such an injury, but my focus now is on having the surgery and starting rehab.
“It’s going to take some time, but I’ll be doing everything I can to get back on the field as soon as possible. I look forward to doing what I can to support Gary and the team over the next few months,” he further added.
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However, recovery from ACL reconstructive surgeries has a fixed time frame of about six months as well, which is far away from the World Cup in India right now. But the swashbuckling batter is likely to have his surgery sometime in the next three weeks as it is best to wait for the swelling in the knee to subside before the surgery as well.
Meanwhile, even if he does well in the expected timelines, te veteran batter is unlikely to have had any practice matches under his belt ahead of the ODI World Cup. On the other hand, Head coach Gary Stead is hopeful of Williamson’s participation in the mega event in India.
“From our perspective, we certainly haven’t given up hope on that, and Kane will meet a number of milestones in the next six months or so,” he said.
“You take Kane the player, for a first start, but then Kane the leader and the person he is within our group as well, it’s a huge spanner in the works for us. Our first thoughts, obviously, are with Kane at the moment, it’s a tough time for him, it’s not an injury that you expect is going to happen, it comes out of the blue and it obviously hits you pretty hard at the time,” he further added.
However, New Zealand, who finished the 2019 World Cup as runners-up, will now have to work on their loopholes going into the 2023 edition of the marquee event. In that last tournament in England, Kane Williamson finished as the Player of the Tournament, scoring 578 runs from nine innings which came at a stunning average of 82.57 with two centuries and two fifties as well.
