ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson ruled out for a month with thumb fracture

Kane Williamson only played one match in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup for New Zealand.

A fracture to skipper Kane Williamson, who just made his return to international cricket in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh, has dealt a severe setback to New Zealand.

Following a six-month absence from the New Zealand team due to an ACL tear suffered while playing for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2023, Williamson returned to the team. In order to fix the injury, he had surgery. He gradually made his way back to fitness and was selected for the NZ's World Cup team.

He participated in both of New Zealand's warm-up games and recorded half-centuries. But in the first two games of the Cricket World Cup 2023, which they easily won, Tom Latham led the Kiwi side.

Williamson struck an outstanding half-century in his first game back for the Kiwis against Bangladesh. He got hit on his left hand, though, by a careless throw, which forced him to retire hurt after feeling pain in his thumb while holding the bat.

Kane Williamson suffers undisplaced fracture to his left thumb, ruled out for a month

Now an X-ray has confirmed that Williamson has suffered an undisplaced fracture to the left thumb after being hit by the errant throw. New Zealand coach Gary Stead said he was hopeful Williamson would still play a part in the tournament.

“Firstly, we’re all feeling for Kane to have this occur after all his hard work to return from his knee injury. While it’s disappointing news, the initial diagnosis has given us some optimism he can still feature later in the pool play following a period of rest and rehabilitation.

Kane is clearly a massive part of our side and a world-class player and captain - so we’ll look to give him every opportunity we can to return in the tournament,” NZ coach Gary Stead told nzc.nz.

As a cover, New Zealand have called up Tom Blundell, but will not be officially a part of the squad, while Williamson rehabilitates the injury.

“Tom’s been with the one-day side on tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh and performed well. He covers multiple positions in the batting order and his wicket-keeping skills are also an added bonus as a back-up,” he added.

New Zealand will next face Afghanistan in Chennai on Wednesday.