"The most important knee in New Zealand", as Katey Martin, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper and current commentator put it in the lead-up to the World Cup, is finally ready to withstand the load of international cricket.
After netting up for almost an hour last evening - and just before hitting Chepauk's outdoor nets again this afternoon - Kane Williamson confirmed that he will return to action against Bangladesh on Friday. At one point it seemed like Williamson would not make the World Cup at all, after having ruptured his ACL during the IPL opener in March this year, but he has made a remarkable recovery since.
"Yeah, definitely. Initially, it [my comeback] was not really considered," Williamson said on the eve of the Bangladesh game. "And to be honest, it was probably a good thing just to get my head stuck into rehab and each day and not sort of rush it. That was really my focus, and I was fortunate as well I had a really, really good team around me back home.
"And also fortunate not to have a lot of setbacks during that time, so there were lots of little steps forward, which I guess accumulate to being here now really and getting close and realising that if each week does keep progressing well, ticking off all those sort of milestones along the way, which there are many of them, then there might be a chance. And yeah, grateful that that was something that could be done and getting named in the squad was a really exciting moment."
Williamson subsequently found some game-time during the warm-ups against Pakistan and South Africa. In what was his first innings with the bat in over six months, Williamson went 4, 4, 4 against Haris Rauf's high pace in the powerplay and pressed on to make 54 off 50 balls before retiring in Hyderabad.
Even at the two training sessions at Chepauk, Williamson batted like he was never away from the game. On Wednesday evening, he middled almost everything against New Zealand's spinners and then when Trent Boult rushed him with an effort ball on Thursday, Williamson coolly rocked his head out of the way.
"Yeah, the recovery was ... [a] journey really with a series of really small steps and just trying to take small steps forward and it certainly started with strength and range, in terms of the knee," Williamson said. "And then gradually trying to improve that and control a bit - some of the pain around it as the load increases and we could be here all day talking about it, but I'll fast-forward a little bit - great to be here and then and get involved in those warm-up games which were really, really enjoyable.
"Then you know during those and post that were a lot of sort of return-to-play fitness parts, which were perhaps a little bit more related to fielding, time on feet and looking to try and execute some of those skills. And so, yeah, each week throughout the last period of time since I've been rehabbing has been really important and really valuable."
During the T20 World Cup in the UAE in 2021, a niggly elbow restricted his batting, but Williamson managed to work his way around that injury. The nature of the injury and the format is different now, but will the past experience of injury management help him this time?
"Quite different injuries but yeah, I suppose speaking of this one you know there were lots of quite clear steps along the way that you were trying to tick off, different milestones in terms of returning to the next phases and those sorts of things," Williamson said. "So quite different, a lot of data around it, mainly from other sports that was relied on and different strength numbers and heights and jumping and just heaps and heaps of different bits.
"So yeah, quite different but just great to be sitting here now and looking forward to the challenges tomorrow."
Williamson's comeback is a significant boost for New Zealand against spin-heavy Bangladesh at spin-friendly Chepauk. He is arguably New Zealand's best player of spin along with Devon Conway, who returns to his IPL home base.