Follow UsKane Williamson suffered an ACL injury in the IPL 2023, and that ruled him out of the upcoming World Cup in India. So severe had been the issue that New Zealand Cricket (NZC) announced Tom Latham as the coach for the mega event, but in a sudden turn of events, the Kiwi skipper has now regained some fitness to take throwdown in the nets.
That has encouraged many Kiwi fans about the talismanic skipper’s prospective return for the World Cup in India, but Williamson is not having hopes up as yet, leaving the decision to doctors.
"If the knee is at a stage where that can be a reality, that's great, but it very much is about getting it right and making sure it is ready to go when that time comes - whenever that time is," Williamson said ahead of a net session in Mount Maunganui.
"You do have some good days, then you have a few variable ones. It's all part of the journey, it's hard to get too far ahead of yourself because you see something really good in one place, but you still know there's a lot of work to do. If I end up at a place where it's realistic because all these bases are covered and it's ticked off by the people who know a lot more about it than me, then that's great."
Recently, New Zealand's selectors included Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson in a squad of 15 for four-match ODI series against England, but Williamson wasn’t named in the squad. Coach Gary Stead, however, insisted that they would be considering Williamson even if he manages to be fit for the later stages of the World Cup. However, Williamson said that it is still a lot of guesswork at the moment.
"To potentially have that opportunity and use all those sorts of different, I suppose, scenarios to try and make that happen would be great. It's still just guesswork at the moment in terms of when the day is or how it's tracking at the time. So it is just about now and I'm working hard to keep it moving forward.
"It's a tricky one. You start entertaining a few earlier targets. It is a lot about the healing element as well. You can have the strength work, the movement, the confidence, but the actual healing is what has to happen and there are a lot of things to really assess before that time. So, that series (against Bangladesh), by all accounts, is too early."