Kane Williamson will return to the T20I fold after a year and captain New Zealand in the upcoming home T20I series against Bangladesh in December 2023. Williamson had last played a T20I match right after the T20 World Cup 2022 at home against India.
He then injured his ACL during the IPL 2023 and only made his comeback post-surgery in the ICC World Cup 2023 tournament. He will be captaining the New Zealand side which won’t have batting mainstay Devon Conway, who has been rested for workload management.
Michael Bracewell (Achilles), Lockie Ferguson (Achilles), Matt Henry (hamstring), and Henry Shipley (back) are all injured. Trent Boult made himself unavailable for selection.
Also making his return to the T20I side is all-rounder James Neesham, who missed the England T20I series in September. Fast bowler Ben Sears, who was recently called up as cover for Kyle Jamieson, has been added to the squad.
Shaun Tait appointed Quetta Gladiators' bowling coach ahead of PSL 2024 season
"It's great to be able to finish off a busy year that started on the road by having the group together in New Zealand. We've played T20 cricket in a wide variety of conditions this year and it's been great to see a broad range of players making contributions.
Tim Seifert, as an example, returned to the side in a specific role at the top of the order and made significant contributions in each series he was part of. With a World Cup in the middle of next year, we're well into our planning in terms of both the tournament and the type of squad we might need in the conditions. While we're advanced in our planning, as we saw with the one-day World Cup squad this year with the likes of Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra - there is certainly still time for players to come into that mix,” NZ coach Gary Stead was quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
New Zealand's T20I squad will assemble on Boxing Day ahead of the series opener against Bangladesh in Napier on December 27, after which the teams travel to Tauranga for the second and third games on December 29 and 31.
New Zealand's T20I squad:
Kane Williamson (capt), Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee
