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After leaving the game during his team’s 21-run
victory in Hamilton on Sunday due to a hamstring injury, Kane Williamson is
unlikely to play in the next three games of New Zealand’s ongoing Twenty20
International series against Pakistan.
Williamson was scheduled to have a scan on Monday
after returning home via plane to Tauranga. He was expected to miss the series’
third game on Wednesday in Dunedin, but he is questionable for the last two
contests. With a 2-0 lead in the series, New Zealand is giving their next
two-Test series against South Africa priority. That series begins on February
3.
He retired hurt on 26 off 15 balls on Sunday, after
feeling tightness in his right hamstring. “It’s the same leg as what his
knee injury was on,” Gary Stead, New Zealand’s coach, said on Monday
morning, referring to the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that
sidelined Williamson for six months last year. “He’s gone home to
Tauranga. He’ll get a scan today.
“Until I know more about the scan, then I haven’t
got any further update at this stage. Will Young was going to join the team
anyway for this [part of the] series. Kane wasn’t going to join. I think it’s
likely that Will will stay on, but until we get the scan results from Kane,
then we can’t make a further decision.”
Asked if Williamson would feature in the final two
T20Is, Stead said: “I think it’s unlikely he will play. I mean with the
Test matches so close as well and probably in the big scheme of things in the
short term for us has higher priority then I think it’s likely we’ll try and
make sure that he’s right for that.”
In the side, Tim Seifert, who hasn’t played in this
series yet, is probably going to replace Williamson and “probably”
take Devon Conway’s gloves.
Stead also affirmed that Trent Boult, who hasn’t
participated in a Twenty20 international since the 2022 World Cup semifinal, is
still a part of New Zealand’s plans for the Caribbean and the United States in
2024. Boult does not hold a central contract and is set to play in the upcoming
ILT20 for MI Emirates, who are an affiliate of Mumbai Indians.