ENG vs NZ | 'Kane Williamson's tennis elbow has shown no ill effects' - Gary Stead

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead is confident that Kane Williamson will be fit and ready to take the field in the three-match away Test series against England starting next month.

Williamson has returned to the national team for the first time since November last year. In his absence, Tom Latham led the side against Bangladesh and South Africa and in the limited-overs home series against the Netherlands. 

While addressing the media, the Kiwi head coach said on Wednesday (May 4) that Williamson was showing no ill effects from the elbow injury that forced him to miss the last five Test matches for his country.

“He’s got no issues at all – training almost completely unrestricted now, still just being careful around the overloading side of it. That means if he has a really big day batting, just making sure he’s not doing too much the next day. It’ll be an ongoing thing probably for the rest of his career that we just have to keep managing,” Gary Stead said in an official statement.

Earlier in February, Williamson said he was so tired of dealing with the elbow that there were times he wanted to ‘cut it off’. He even reached out to India’s veteran cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s Steve Smith for advice on recovering from elbow injuries. 

The right-hand batter is currently leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the current edition of the Indian Premier League. He hasn’t missed any of the league games thus far, but he is struggling with the bat, averaging just 24.37 at a strike rate of 99.48

And after the conclusion of IPL 2022, the Kiwi captain will be heading to England to lead the Blackcaps against the newly appointed Ben Stokes’ England in a three-match series, starting from June 2.