Black Caps captain Kane Williamson and a number of other senior players were on Tuesday excluded from upcoming tours to Bangladesh and Pakistan as New Zealand specializes in the Twenty20 World Cup.
New Zealand confirmed their World Cup line-up in an unprecedented 32-man white ball squad to handle an important workload over the subsequent four months.
In addition to the planet Cup and tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan, New Zealand even has a Test series in India thereupon squad to be named next month.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said changing times demanded changing strategies, with player welfare and support one among professional sport’s biggest challenges, particularly within the current pandemic environment.
“The got to safeguard the well-being of our players and support staff is now very real, and we’ve endeavored to try to do this by carefully managing their workloads over this [year’s] massive playing program,” White said.
New Zealand players involved during this year’s prematurely suspended Indian Premier League would be allowed to re-join their franchises when it re-starts in September.
“It’s a practical approach. We’ve always tried to be realistic about the IPL and this particular issue is extremely much a one-off, caused by a singular set of circumstances,” White said.
A separate squad captained by Tom Latham will head to Bangladesh and Pakistan for white-ball tours in September and October before the planet Cup to manage player workloads amid taxing Covid-19 restrictions.
Ross Taylor was initially selected for the three One-day Internationals in Pakistan but, with the brief nature of the one-week series and therefore the length of quarantine protocols, it had been decided he would remain in New Zealand to organize for the Indian Test tour.
All-rounder Mark Chapman and spin bowler Todd Astle were named within the 15-man Twenty20 World Cup squad, while Finn Allen and Colin de Grandhomme have omitted.
Astle joins fellow leg-spinner Ish Sodhi and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner for the Oct 17-Nov 14 tournament within the United Arab Emirates and Oman where spin is predicted to be important.
Adam Milne will travel with the Williamson-captained squad as a standby for frontline pacemen Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, and Lockie Ferguson.
New Zealand play in Group 2 at the planet Cup with India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and two qualifiers.
