Williamson to miss entire SA series

Kane Williamson will miss the remaining two ODIs against South Africa to continue rehabilitation on his left wrist, according to New Zealand coach Mike Hesson. Williamson had been kept out of the opening match of the series on Tuesday as well.

"Kane has been ruled out of the rest of the series," Hesson said. "Unfortunately, he needs further rehabilitation on his wrist. It is not the time of the year where we want to rush him."

Williamson had returned from the Champions League T20 in India, where he was playing for Northern Knights, with a sore wrist and had a cortisone injection to alleviate the pain. Hesson said that New Zealand were not sure when exactly Williamson had suffered the injury. "We don't know when he damaged it. Once he got back to New Zealand, we assessed the situation. Once he had a scan, it was pretty clear that he needed rest."

Hesson added that while the injury was not serious enough to require surgery, New Zealand did not want to be hasty with a key player in a World Cup season. "Kane had a ligament issue. There was a one-off incident where there was a small tear in there. It has been injected and it has recovered. It is pretty much fixed, just needs some rehabilitation. He batted the last couple of days without a huge amount of discomfort but (it is) not something we are going to rush back."

New Zealand travel to the UAE next month for three Tests, two T20 internationals and five ODIs against Pakistan, and Hesson said Williamson would be on that trip, as would Ross Taylor, who has also missed the South Africa ODIs with a calf issue.

"Very confident (of Williamson going to the UAE). Like I said, we are not risking him and we are not risking Ross either. A huge season for us and it is the first part so we are not going to compromise the rest of the season.

"Ross is progressing well. He batted the last few days, he is up here with us. There should be no reason why he won't jump on the plane to Dubai."