New Zealand's white-ball captain Kane Williamson has been blessed with a baby girl ahead of the Test series opener against Australia. This is Williamson's third child and the Kiwi stalwart took to the social media platform Instagram to share the news with his fans on Wednesday, February 28.
The 33-year-old batter posted a beautiful picture of his wife Sarah Raheem and the infant and captioned it as "And then there was 3. Welcome to the world beautiful Girl. So grateful for your safe arrival and the exciting journey ahead."
Meanwhile, New Zealand are slated to take on Australia in the first Test of the two-match series starting Thursday, February 29 at Basin Reserve in Wellington. The series holds plenty of significance for both teams. While Australia are second on the World Test Championship (WTC 2023-25 cycle) with six wins in 10 games, the Blackcaps are occupying the top spot with three wins in four games.
Australia are coming into the two-match series on the back of a drawn series against West Indies. The Aussies had won the first Test of the series at the Adelaide Oval by 10 wickets but lost the second Test at The Gabba in Brisbane by eight runs.
On the other hand, New Zealand hammered a second-string South African side 2-0 at home recently are buoyant after the win. They will be encouraged by the return of Daryl Mitchell who sat out of the three-match T20I series with a foot injury.
New Zealand Test squad:
Tim Southee (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.
Australia Test squad:
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc.
