Williamson set for sixth T20 World Cup as New Zealand name strong squad

WELLINGTON: Cap­tain Kane Williamson will play at his sixth Twenty20 World Cup in June after New Zealand named an experienced 15-man squad on Monday.

The tournament, taking in the United States and the West Indies from June 2-30, will be Williamson’s fourth as captain. The batsman leads a squad including New Zealand’s Test captain Tim Southee, who will be taking part in his seventh T20 World Cup.

Southee, 35, has taken a record 157 T20 Inter­national wickets and he spearheads the attack alongside seasoned pace bowler Trent Boult, 34, who will be playing in his fifth T20 World Cup.

Seam bowler Matt Henry and batting all-rounder Rachin Ravindra, voted the emerging cricketer of 2023, are the only players in the squad who have not played in a previous T20 World Cup.

“When you go to World Cups, you want experience,” said New Zealand head coach Gary Stead. “It’s an exciting squad with lots of options for Kane and I to consider in terms of balance, pitches and surfaces.

“We expect the venues in the West Indies to offer quite varied conditions and feel we’ve selected a squad with the scope to adapt to those conditions,” Stead added.

The coach hoped Henry and Ravindra will be making their impact at the global showpiece.

“Matt has worked exceptionally hard on his skills across the phases of a T20 game to come back into selection consideration.

“Rachin has made every post a winner in the past 12 months and it was exciting to see him continue that trajectory over the summer in the T20 format against Australia.”

Seamers Adam Milne and Kyle Jamieson were both ruled out by injury.

Squad: Kane Williamson (captain), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.