Wellington: Matt Henry has edged out Ben Sears for the vacant seam bowling berth in New Zealand’s squad for the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States.
Henry slots into a seam bowling attack featuring Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson, with Adam Milne ruled out due to ankle surgery and the injured Kyle Jamieson also unavailable.
Kane Williamson will captain the T20 World Cup squad for a fourth time as New Zealand hunt for a maiden title after reaching the semi-finals of the last three tournaments and the final in 2021.
“We expect the venues in the West Indies to offer quite varied conditions and feel we’ve selected a squad with the scope to adapt to those conditions,” Black Caps coach Gary Stead said in a news release on Monday.
Henry and batsman Rachin Ravindra will be making their T20 World Cup debuts.
“Matt has worked exceptionally hard on his skills across the phases of a T20 game to come back into selection consideration,” said Stead.
“Rachin has made every post a winner in the past 12 months and it was exciting to see him continue that trajectory over the summer in the T20 format against Australia.” The squad is otherwise highly experienced, with Boult selected for his fifth World Cup, Southee his seventh and batting linchpin Williamson appearing at his sixth.
Thirteen members of the 15-man squad have had recent experience in the Caribbean, featuring on the last tour of the West Indies in 2022.
Williamson captain
Captain Kane Williamson will play at his sixth Twenty20 World Cup in June.
The tournament, taking in the United States and the West Indies from June 2-30, will be Williamson’s fourth as captain.
The batsman leads a squad including New Zealand’s Test captain Tim Southee, who will be taking part in his seventh T20 World Cup.
Southee, 35, has taken a record 157 T20 international wickets and he spearheads the attack alongside seasoned pace bowler Trent Boult, 34, who will be playing in his fifth T20 World Cup.
“When you go to World Cups, you want experience,” said New Zealand head coach Gary Stead.
“It’s an exciting squad with lots of options for Kane and I to consider in terms of balance, pitches and surfaces.”
Seamers Adam Milne and Kyle Jamieson were both ruled out by injury.
New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (capt), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.
