New Zealand's marquee batter Kane Williamson's availability for New Zealand's upcoming home summer remains undecided, as the veteran batter continues to navigate his playing commitments and personal considerations. Head coach Rob Walter has confirmed that a final decision on Williamson's participation will take more time but emphasized that New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is willing to give the veteran batter more time.
Williamson, who is currently operating under a casual playing contract with NZC, opted out of New Zealand’s three-match T20I series against Australia, and he had also made himself unavailable for the tour of Zimbabwe.
"Kane, we're still in conversations as to what the summer is going to look like. He will play, no doubt about that. Just what and where is still in discussion,” Walter was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
"I think the reality is we're dealing with all the guys on casual contracts, actually in different positions from a playing point of view. Kane is one of those and he deserves the opportunity to sit and talk about what the rest of his year will look like. But I keep coming back to the most important thing, [which] is that he wants to play for his country, and so nutting out exactly what that looks like can take an extra week or two, but surely, he deserves that,” he said.
Walter was not concerned about not having a full-strength T20I side in the build-up to next year's World Cup; however, he put emphasis on team culture.
"I think we don't live in an ideal world and so that's part and parcel of it. I've been part of a World Cup campaign [with South Africa] where the team assembled at its full strength three days before our first game and that team managed to make a final,” Walter said.