NZ head coach confirms Kane Williamson fit for England Tests

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has confirmed that Kane Williamson is fit and is ready to take the field in the three-match away Test series against England next month. The New Zealand captain, who made his last international appearance in November 2021, has made a return to the squad as NZC announced an initial 20-player squad for England Tests on Tuesday (May 3).

To note, Williamson was out of action due to a stubborn elbow injury which made him miss the crucial Test series against Bangladesh and South Africa. As of now, the talismanic batter is leading Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Stead stated that the veteran has almost entirely overcome his injury issues and will definitely take the field against the Three Lions.

Kane Williamson’s injury issues will be an ongoing thing for the rest of his career: Gary Stead

“He’s got no issues at all – training almost completely unrestricted now, still just being careful around the overloading side of it. That means if he has a really big day batting, just making sure he’s not doing too much the next day. It’ll be an ongoing thing probably for the rest of his career that we just have to keep managing,” Stead said in an official statement.

Meanwhile, the Test series gets underway on June 2 and the IPL 2022 final will take place on May 2. Hence, Stead is afraid that some IPL-bound players might miss the first Test due to the playoff matches. “The difficulty may be the final of the IPL on the 29th of May. That may cause us some discussions if we have a number of players that are in that, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said.

Notably, the Kiwis have some fine memories from UK as they recorded a 1-0 Test series triumph in England last year. Days after that series win, the Kiwis also defeated India in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final to lift the glorious title.