Williamson fitness boost for Black Caps

Kane Williamson has confirmed that he will be fit for New Zealand’s Test series against England despite suffering with a hip injury. The Black Caps skipper has batted just four times since the World Cup final defeat against England in July and sat out the entire five-match Twenty20 series on home soil against Eoin Morgan’s side this month. England edged the series 3-2 thanks to Sunday’s super over success and the focus will now switch to the two Test matches later in November. There had been some doubts over Williamson being able to participate for the hosts, but the 29-year-old has revealed that he should be involved. Speaking ahead of the first Test, which starts at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on November 21, he said: “It’s been an ongoing niggle, really. That comes and goes. It is settling, which is nice. “A lot of [the last few months] has been rehab to get the hip right. I had a four-dayer recently and there’s a gap between this series and the first test, so it’s basically training going into it. “A lot of it is mindset, so trying to get that right, trying to prepare as well as well as you can to give yourself the best chance. “I guess if you’re looking at preparation and perfect preparation, game-time can be nice – spending time in the middle – but it’ll be tough to come by seeing as there’s not a lot of cricket between now and then.”