New Zealand squad for 20-20 World Cup announced, Adam Milne makes a comeback

With less than a month left at the start of the 20-20 World Cup 2022, New Zealand has announced its squad. In this squad, most of the players played in the last edition of the tournament. Only leg-spinner Todd Astle isn't part of the team this time. The selection committee of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has included Adam Milne, who is making a comeback after suffering an Achilles problem.

The pacer missed the recent tour due to the same. New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said that the team management has a lot of conversations with Milne and the medical crew working on his injury. Stead said that the team is confident if everything goes well, the right-arm pacer will be available for the tri-series against Pakistan and Bangladesh. For the unversed, the Blackcaps will play a tri-series against Pakistan and Bangladesh before the showpiece event.

"We've had a lot of conversations with Adam and the medical crew around him and we are confident that if everything goes well for him that he'll be available for the tri-series games beforehand," Stead said. "I guess that's ultimately a final test for him to make sure he's where we want to be. We believe he'll be ready and that's why he was selected."

Finn Allen and Michael Bracewell will play their first World Cup

Talking further about the squad, Finn Allen and Michael Bracewell will be playing their first World Cup. The latter made his international debut on the tour of England a few months ago. On the other hand, Allen is an option for keeping wickets during the tournament if need be. According to Stead, 'you expect in Australia that probably even less balls will go through to the keeper'.

Allen made his T20I debut last year and has a strike rate of 169.54 and has a T20I hundred which he scored against Scotland. New Zealand open their T20 World Cup campaign against hosts Australia, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, on October 22.

Squad

Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne