'Relied A Lot On Data From Other Sports': Kane Williamson On His Recovery

The team looking after Kane Williamson post his knee injury relied a lot on data from injuries in other sports to get him back in shape for the ICC World Cup, the premier New Zealand batter said on Thursday. The skipper will be playing his first match of the World Cup in Chennai on Friday, having recovered from a surgery to treat a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee. "A lot of data around it, mainly from other sports that were relied on and different strength numbers and heights and jumping and just heaps and heaps of different bits," Williamson said on the eve of their match against Bangladesh.

Returning to international cricket after a long layoff, he said it has been "quite a journey".

"As for my recovery, it's been quite a journey, but largely a good one that's had some really good progress, and you know, I've said a number of times, really excited to be named in the World Cup squad, be sitting here now and really excited at the prospect of tomorrow, which is another big challenge for us," he said during the pre-match press conference.

Williamson suffered the injury while playing for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023 and has not played cricket since then.

Elaborating on his recovery phase, Williamson added, "The recovery journey certainly started with strength and range in terms of the knee and then gradually trying to improve that and control a bit - some of the pain around it as the load increases, and we could be here all day talking about it.

"But, I'll fast forward a little bit - and great to be here and then get involved in those warm-up games which were really, really enjoyable and then during those and post that were a lot of sort of return to play fitness parts which were perhaps a little