Cricket World Cup 2023: Stand-In Skipper Tom Latham Confirms Tim Southee To Miss Opener Vs England With Kane Williamson
Tim Southee, a star pacer for New Zealand, was hurt when trying a catch that Joe Root had offered at the Lord's during a recent series that they lost 1-3.
Ahmedabad: New Zealand will play the first game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against England on Thursday without key pacer Tim Southee, who is still recovering from surgery on his hand. This is on top of the fact that regular captain Kane Williamson is out.
Stand-in captain Tom Latham said Southee is doing well after surgery last month to fix a broken thumb on his right hand.
Southee got hurt while trying to catch a ball that Joe Root threw to him at Lord's during a recent series that England lost 1-3.
Williamson had surgery in April to fix a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He hasn't played in a meaningful game of cricket yet, but he did play in the Kiwis' warm-up games before the World Cup.
"Of course there's no Kane and no Tim either." "He can't be picked because of what happened to his thumb a few weeks ago, but he's getting better," Latham told reporters the day before the event started.
"It's been almost two weeks since the surgery, so I hope he can keep getting better." What that looks like for him changes a bit from day to day. However, Latham said, "I hope he'll be available as soon as possible as well."
The captain of New Zealand claimed that the final of the World Cup four years ago and the results of their most recent series would not matter when they play the defending champions. "It doesn't seem to affect the next game at all." The important thing is to show up on that day and play your best cricket. We can beat anyone in the world if we do that and play as well as we can.
The game tomorrow against one of the best teams in the world right now will be a great chance for us. "The conditions are very different from where we played in England," he said.
New Zealand has made it to the finals of the last two World Cups, but they are not seen as the favourite. Latham said that his team likes to "fly under the radar." "I think you guys should decide that, but like I said, we don't always focus on that." The Kiwis don't get too much attention, and we do our own thing.
All teams have their own brand or style of football that they like to play. We have ours. "We know that on that day, if we do that and play our best, we will be hard to beat," he said.
The batter-wicketkeeper said that the players don't care about what people said before the event. "From our point of view, and I'm sure that of most teams, we're not always interested in what people think will happen." "Right now, all we can think about is what we need to do," he said.
"The style of cricket we want to play in this World Cup is our main goal, and if we're in those four spots at the end of the tournament, that's great," he said.
The coach hoped Williamson would join the team soon. "Obviously, any team that doesn't have Kane on it is worse than ours. We'd be better off with him." However, we think that the fact that he is here at the World Cup shows how hard he has worked over the last four or five months to get where he is.
"He's been given a chance almost six months after surgery. Being given a chance to play in the World Cup at some point really shows how hard he's worked." "So for him, it's day by day as far as his recovery goes," Latham said.
Williamson scored 54 runs in the warm-up game against Pakistan and 37 runs in the game against South Africa. "They can see that he played some in the last two warm-up games." "He's been hitting the ball really well, which is great to see, and he was out in the field a few days ago, so he's really making progress. Let's hope he's back on the field soon," Latham said.