Kane Williamson and Tim Southee will bypass the Sri Lanka ODI series in order to join their respective IPL sides early.

New Zealand Cricket has granted permission for four New Zealand cricketers to travel to India prior to the March 31 commencement of the Indian Premier League. The four players, including ODI captain Kane Williamson, will not play in the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka, which begins on March 25.

The four players, Williamson (Gujarat Titans), Tim Southee (Kolkata Knight Riders), Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner (both Chennai Super Kings), will travel to India after the second and final Test against Sri Lanka, which is scheduled to begin on March 17 at Basin Reserve, Wellington, to join their respective IPL franchises ahead of the upcoming season.

Three more New Zealand cricketers, notably Finn Allen (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Lockie Ferguson (KKR), and Glenn Phillips (Sunrisers Hyderabad), will be cut from the ODI team following the March 25 match in Auckland.
Mark Chapman, Ben Lister, and Henry Nicholls will be added to the roster as substitutes for the aforementioned three players prior to the March 28 ODI at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

In the forthcoming series, Tom Blundell and Will Young will also make their return to international white-ball cricket. Blundell last appeared in an ODI in 2020, while Young last appeared in an ODI in July 2022. In the absence of Kane Williamson, Tom Latham has been entrusted with leading the ODI series.

IPL 2023 will commence on March 31
Gary Stead, coach of the Black Caps, stated on the NZC website, “It’s always interesting as a coach to have new players in the atmosphere and players putting their hands up to be selected again in a particular format.”
“We are scheduled to play 16 white ball matches between now and the beginning of May, so there will be plenty opportunities for players to test themselves in both familiar and unusual settings,” he said of New Zealand’s preparations for the October-November ODI World Cup in India.

In the meantime, IPL 2023 will begin on March 31 with a match between the defending champion Gujarat Titans and the four-time champion Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.