Image Credit- Getty
Due to a shoulder injury, Josh Clarkson will not be
playing for New Zealand in the Twenty20 Internationals until the third Twenty20
International match against Pakistan. In place of him for the Wednesday night
contest in Dunedin will be Will Young.
Kane Williamson was to be replaced by Clarkson for the
third game while the captain of New Zealand continues to assess his knee issue.
However, during the Super Smash, Clarkson suffered a shoulder injury while
representing Central Districts. Young will become a member of the team
following Sunday’s second T20I.
Young has participated in 97 T20 matches overall,
scoring 2290 runs at an average of 26.62, including two hundreds and fourteen
fifties. He has scored two fifties and 260 runs at 20.00 in 14 T20Is, however
his strike rate in these matches is only 102.36, far lower than his strike rate
in T20s as a whole (133.83). Young joins the team after scoring 50 runs and 100
runs for Central Districts in the Napier Super Smash. Before blazing his way to
an undefeated 63-ball 101 against Otago in the following game, he hammered a
33-ball 50 against Wellington.
Williamson will return for the remaining two Twenty20
international matches, which are scheduled for January 19 and 21 in
Christchurch. The teams will leave for Dunedin on Monday.
Due to Covid-19, Mitchell Santner, who was set to
captain New Zealand for the third Twenty20 International in Williamson’s
absence, was unable to play in the opening match in Auckland. If Santner is
unable to recover in time for the third game, it will be intriguing to see who
captains the team. After testing positive on Friday, he was kept apart at the
team’s hotel in Auckland.