New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson will lead the Blackcaps in the upcoming T20I series against Bangladesh. The three-match T20I series between New Zealand and Bangladesh starts at McLean Park in Napier on December 27. After that, the two teams will head to Tauranga’s Bay Oval for the last two matches of the series on December 29 and 31 respectively.
Kane Williamson, Jimmy Neesham, and Ben Sears are the only players in the squad who didn’t feature against England in the Kiwis’ latest T20I series earlier this year. Kane Williamson missed that series as he was recovering from his knee surgery.
Jimmy Neesham was originally in the squad to face England but he had to return to New Zealand early before the birth of his first child. With express pacer Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne filling the bowling spots, Ben Sears didn’t feature.
Ben Sears gets an opportunity to play international cricket at home for the first time with all of his previous features coming overseas. Devon Conway, who opens the batting for New Zealand in this format was not considered for selection as he enjoys his rest period following a heavy workload during the 2023 cricketing calendar.
Meanwhile, Michael Bracewell (Achilles), Lockie Ferguson (Achilles), Matt Henry (hamstring), and Henry Shipley (back) missed out due to their respective injuries. Star left-arm pacer Trent Boult made himself unavailable for this series.
New Zealand Head Coach Believes The Series Will Start The Team’s Preparation For Next Year’s ICC T20 World Cup
New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said that this series represents the start of the team’s preparation for next year’s ICC T20 World Cup. the World Cup is scheduled for June 2024 and will be hosted jointly by the West Indies and the United States of America.
“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,” said Gary Stead.
“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,” he added.
New Zealand’s T20I Squad For Bangladesh: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee
The coaching staff will include head coach Gary Stead with regular batting coach Luke Ronchi, Canterbury Men’s Development Coach Brendon Donkers as the bowling coach, and NZC High-Performance Network Coach Dean Brownlie. The squad will assemble on the 26th of December in Napier.
