PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – New Zealand captain Kane Williamson remained coy about his future in 20-overs internationals after his team crashed out from the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the United States.
New Zealand could not make the Super Eight stage of the 20-team tournament and finished third as West Indies and Afghanistan advanced from group C.
Team mate Trent Boult has confirmed this was his last T20 World Cup but Williamson would not reveal his plans after they finished their group campaign with a consolation victory against Papua New Guinea.
“I don’t know,” Williamson, 33, said when asked if he would be seen in action in the 2026 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
“There’s a bit of time between now and then, so it’s about regrouping as a side.
“We’ve got red-ball cricket over the next year basically, so it’s back into some other international formats, and we’ll see where things land.”
Williamson said it was “frustrating” to crash out so early despite their habit of punching above their weight in global tournaments.
New Zealand began their campaign with defeats by Afghanistan and West Indies and their subsequent victories against Uganda and Papua New Guinea were of no real use.
“We wanted to start the campaign strong, and we weren’t able to do that,” Williamson said.
“We played against a couple of very strong sides who are very well equipped in these conditions and unfortunately it made the difference in our first two games.”
The tournament has proved a low-scoring affair so far with just three 200-plus scores, while no batter has managed to register a century.
“Rhythm to batting doesn’t really exist on these wickets,” Williamson said of the slow tracks in the region.
“It’s trying to find a method that might allow you to get competitive totals and that’s quite different to other surfaces that are slightly more even.”
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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