Kane Williamson retires from T20Is

Auckland: Charismatic batter and former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson on Sunday called time on his T20 International career days before the commencement of a five-match series against the touring West Indies.

Williamson, who played 93 T20I games for New Zealand, was recently appointed the strategic advisor for the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants for the 2026 season.

Following the announcement, the 35-year-old top-order batter was not included in the 14-member T20I squad for the series against the West Indies beginning here on Wednesday. Williamson, who amassed 2575 runs T20Is but never scored a century, will also miss the ensuing ODI series to focus on the three Tests against the Caribbean side.

He retires as New Zealand’s second-highest men’s T20I runs-scorer at an average of 33, including 18 half-centuries and a highest score of 95. The cricketer, who has more than 19,000 runs across formats, had made his T20I debut in 2011 and went on to lead the side on 75 occasions, including captaining them to two T20 World Cup semifinals, in 2016 and 2022, and the final in 2021.