World Cup 2023: Big Blow to NZ, Kane Williamson likely to miss WC due to injury

The New Zealand team announced on Thursday that captain Kane Williamson has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee and almost certainly will not play in the 50-over World Cup in India later this year.

The elite top-order batsman returned to New Zealand after suffering the injury while fielding for the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League on Friday.

On Tuesday, scans showed that Williamson will need knee surgery in two to three weeks when the swelling goes down. He will need to recover for a long time after the surgery, making it unlikely that he will be fit enough to play in the tournament in October and November.

“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.”

Williamson, who will have surgery later this month, said in a news release.

Williamson had returned to his best this late spring, principally in the Test field, scoring twofold hundreds of years against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to go with two different hundreds of years.

Kane Williamson has played 161 ODIs for New Zealand and has scored 13 centuries at an average of 47.8

His batting helped New Zealand reach the World Cup final in Australia in 2015 and the World Cup final in 2019, where they lost in a dramatic Super Over to hosts England. The 32-year-old, who has scored 6,554 runs in one-day internationals at an average of just under 48, stepped down from the captaincy of the test team last year but continued to lead the shorter formats.

The Black Caps would clearly suffer a setback in losing their best batsman and captain, but coach Gary Stead said that they had not completely ruled him out yet.

“It’s a huge spanner in the works for us. We haven’t given up hope that he might be right, but at this stage it looks unlikely. Our first thoughts are with Kane, it’s a tough time for him. It’s not an injury that you’d expect, it’s come out of the blue, and it obviously hits you hard at the time.” 

he said.

Organizers still can’t seem to declare confirmed dates for the World Cup however it is normal to start off toward the beginning of October with the significant countries, including New Zealand, beginning their missions towards the month’s end.

“I look forward to doing what I can to support Gary and the team over the next few months,”

Williamson added.