New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson to miss two-match Test series against South Africa

New Zealand will play a two-match Test series against the South African side at home. This series is scheduled to commence on 17th February 2022. And, the Kiwis will be without their skipper and batting talisman Kane Williamson for this series.

Williamson is currently sidelined from action because of an elbow injury, is undergoing rehabilitation, and will not be able to make a comeback before the Test series against the Proteas.

Tom Latham will once again stand in as the skipper of the Black Caps in Williamson’s absence. New Zealand will also be without batting legend Ross Taylor for the Test series against South Africa. Taylor retired from Test cricket last month, after the two-match series against the Bangladesh side.

Head Coach Gary Stead opens up on Kane Williamson’s elbow injury

The head coach of the New Zealand cricket team, Gary Stead said he hopes that Williamson can make a return from injury, but added that there is no guarantee as to when that will happen. Adding that Williamson might need to adjust the way he is preparing, Stead opined that Williamson should avoid having extensive net sessions.

“I hope we can get to a stage where it will be like that, but there’s no guarantee and it’s something we’ve talked about. Kane may just have to adjust how he goes about preparing and maybe not having quite as extensive net sessions in preparation periods. That’s still something to be determined on how the elbow does shape up,” Stead had said last month as quoted by stuff.co.nz.

Stead had also said that there have been times in the past when Williamson has been pushed to make a return to action early, and the idea behind resting Williamson is to ensure that he does not experience pain.

“The idea is to have no pain at all. In the past couple of times we’ve tried and maybe pushed him a bit early, so we’ve got to be particular around the programme,” concluded New Zealand coach Stead.