CAPITALS’ NEESHAM NAMED IN NEW ZEALAND’S T20 WORLD CUP SQUAD

New Zealand have become the first nation to name their provisional squad for the T20 World Cup and have included Pretoria Capitals allrounder Jimmy Neesham among the experienced 15 men headed the USA and Caribbean.

Their attempt at winning a first white ball World Cup will be lead by legendary batter Kane Williamson, while Neesham, one of the standout performers across the two Betway SA20 seasons, has been picked for his sixth tournament for the Black Caps.

Neesham was ever-present for Pretoria Capitals as they reached the inaugural SA20 Final in 2023 – a campaign during which he claimed a League-high 10 catches. The 33-year-old started Season 2 as stand-in captain (for Wayne Parnell) before missing the back-end of the competition with a hamstring injury.

He first came to prominence in 2024, when picked as a 23-year-old for that year’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh but then missed the next two World Cups: the 50-overs version held in Australia and New Zealand in 2015 and the 2016 20-overs tournament in India. The Black Caps finished as runners-up and semi-finalists respectively in those.

They’ve maintained their consistency in the four subsequent World Cups, all of which Neesham has played his part in. At the 2019 Cricket World Cup in England they agonizingly lost the Final after a Super Over, while two years later, at the T20 World Cup they had to settle for runners-up again to Australia.

In 2022, they fell short in the T20 World Cup semifinal against Pakistan while last year, hosts India got the better of them in the Cricket World Cup semifinals.

New Zealand are in Group C for the upcoming T20 showpiece (2-29 June), alongside co-hosts West Indies, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. They will play their fixtures in Guyana and Trinidad.

NEW ZEALAND 2024 T20 WORLD CUP PROVISIONAL SQUAD

Kane Williamson (captain), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham (Pretoria Capitals), Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ben Sears (travelling reserve).