According to the New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, their T20 World Cup campaign was cut short, and he said the team will take time to recover from it. He is unsure whether or not he will be able to take part in the next prestigious event set for 2026.
As one of the modern greats and a regular across all formats, Williamson has been the mainstay of BlackCaps’ batting line-up for over a decade.
New Zealand have made it to three finals with Kane Williamson in their ranks – the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups, 2021 T20 World Cup, and also won their first ever WTC final. The BlackCaps were led by Williamson in three out of four events.
“Maybe,” was how he responded when asked if he would be back for that tournament slated for 2026.
New Zealand ended their campaign with an easy seven-wicket win over Papua New Guinea on Tuesday. This was the first time they failed to reach semifinals in ten years. Furthermore, Trent Boult has declared that this year’s event is his last international T20 WC appearance as a frontline bowler for them.
“There’s a bit of time between now and then so I suppose we’ll regroup as a side and yeah sort of got red ball cricket over the next year basically.
“So yeah it’s back into some international other formats and yeah you know just see what happens,” he added.
Discussing New Zealand’s brief run at the tournament during his post-match interview with journalists after the defeat against England today afternoon (Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer), Kane Williamson said;
“Well I think regardless of what happens you never satisfied .”
“But it’s been very different for us as opposed to everyone else here; there’s always mixed circumstances which batmen are confronted by in such pitches though.”
They began their competition on Day 12. Within four days they had been eliminated from the Super Eights by Afghanistan and West Indies.
“It took a long time to start, and then in a matter of days, we were sort of not in contention, which was frustrating. We wanted to start well and we didn’t,” Williamson said.
“We played against two very strong sides who are very well equipped in these conditions and unfortunately it was the difference in our first two games and then some decent cricket in the last two, so all in all frustrating.
“But I think in terms of going forward for certainly any players that come back for example to this part of the world or into some of these conditions they’ve been quite difficult at times so it’s good experiences anyways,” he added.
