New Zealand 'careful' with Kane Williamson's recovery, batter not ruled out of World Cup yet: Gary Stead

New Zealand remain hopeful that their veteran batter Kane Williamson remains fit enough to play the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, although he might miss a few games while he recovers from a knee injury.

Williamson, who injured his knee in April during an IPL match, has not been named in the New Zealand squad for the ODI series against England that starts in September, but will continue his rehabilitation during the Kiwis’ limited-overs tour to England.

The Black Caps’ limited-overs tour to England starts with a four-match T20I series on 30 August. The four-match ODI series will be played from 8 September, which would be less than a month before the World Cup gets underway.

Tom Latham will continue to lead New Zealand in Williamson’s absence.

“We will take every measure we can to make sure that we get the medical advice that lines up and he’s where we want to be before we make that call on whether he (Williamson) goes  (for the World Cup) or not,” New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said as he announced the team for England ODIs.

“Kane’s working very much on a day-by-day, week-by-week process and we’ve been really clear and careful with him that we don’t look too far ahead and, I guess, get expectations too big or not big enough at times as well.

“He’s progressed as we’ve hoped and possibly even better in some cases but you know with ACL injuries that they can be difficult, and different for every person as well. As I said, we’ll try and get the medical experts around Kane as much as we can to help us make that decision in about three weeks’ time,” added the 51-year-old.

The deadline for the teams to submit their 15-man squads for the World Cup is 5 September. The teams can, however, make any number of changes to the squad by 27 September, with the changes needing approval from the ICC.

New Zealand begin their World Cup campaign with a match against England in Ahmedabad on 5 October.