T20 World Cup 2024: Kane Williamson Named Captain as New Zealand Reveal 15-man Squad

New Zealand have named their 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Seasoned campaigner Kane Williamson has been named captain of the squad while Devon Conway, who was ruled out of the ongoing IPL 2024 due to a thumb injury, has been included.

New Zealand T20 World Cup Squad

Kane Williamson (captain), 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

Traveling Reserve: Bean Sears

This will be Williamson’s sixth T20 World Cup as a player and fourth as New Zealand captain.

Head coach Gary Stead said the squad has been selected keeping in mind the varied conditions teams are likely to encounter during the T20 showpiece slated to begin in the first week of June.

“I’d like to congratulate everyone named today. It’s a special time representing your country at a world tournament. 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,” Stead said.

Among the 15, only Matt Henry and Rachin Ravindra haven’t been named in a T20 World Cup squad before.

“Matt has worked exceptionally hard on his skills across the phases of a T20 game to come back into selection consideration. 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,” Stead said.

With both Tim Seifert and Tom Blundell snubbed, Allen is expected to be the  reserve ‘keeper in the squad while Conway will be the first-choice for the wicketkeeping duties.

The New Zealand team management is expecting spin to play a major role during the tournament and it’s visible in the number of spinners they have included in their squad.

The likes of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi are the specialist spinners while Ravindra, Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell offer them more options.

New Zealand made it to the semi-final of the last T20 World Cup where they were beaten by Pakistan.