Recovering Kane Williamson confident of being fit ahead of England Tests

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who is currently recovering from a niggle, has said that he is hoping to be fully fit ahead of his side's opening Test of the two-match series against England, beginning November 21 at Bay Oval in Tauranga.

The 29-year-old was earlier forced to miss New Zealand's five-match T20I series against England following a hip complaint. 

Speaking on the sidelines of his side's fourth T20I defeat against England in Napier, Williamson said that there is a lot of gap between the T20Is and Test series between the two sides and, therefore, he is confident of regaining full fitness.

"It's been an ongoing niggle, really. That comes at 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 [for Northern Districts, against Canterbury], and there's a gap between this series and the first Test, so it's basically training going into it," the International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Williamson as saying to Sky Sports NZ. 

"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. So it's just trying to get the mindset right to go on and execute your plans as well as you can," he added. 

Williamson has appeared in just four matches since New Zealand's final defeat to England in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019. The New Zealand skipper last appeared for the national side during a Test series against Sri Lanka in August. 

New Zealand XI are slated to play warm-up matches against England on November 12-13 and November 15-17 before heading into the Test series.