Kane Williamson will captain New Zealand during their Twenty20 and one-day international matches against Pakistan in the UAE. Captain Brendon McCullum will skip the series and instead head home to New Zealand to prepare for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka, along with fast bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult.
Batting allrounder Anton Devcich has been included, having not played for New Zealand since last November, and fast bowler Adam Milne also earned a spot. Bruce Edgar, the general manager of national selection, said the decision to give McCullum, Southee and Boult extra time at home was based on their recent workloads.
“Managing players’ workloads will be an important part of our summer’s plans and this is simply an example of that,” Edgar said. “On the flipside, it gives us a chance to assess and evaluate other players in contention for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 squad, and allows us to work on some of our contingency plans – such as developing Kane’s captaincy experience.”
Williamson has led New Zealand in three ODIs and two T20s, most recently the second T20 against West Indies in July. The first Test against Sri Lanka begins less than a week after the return to New Zealand of the ODI squad.
T20 and ODI squad Kane Williamson (capt), Corey Anderson, Dean Brownlie, Anton Devcich, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori.
