New Zealand women’s team batter Suzie Bates has sustained a quadricep tear, ruling her out of the home summer until March. Bates suffered the injury last month while fielding during a Hallyburton Johnstone Shield match.
Subsequent scans revealed that due to the severity of the tear, she will require three months of rehabilitation, as informed by New Zealand Cricket in a release on Sunday night.
The recovery timeline means Bates will be unavailable for Otago for the remainder of the domestic home summer and for the White Ferns’ home series against Zimbabwe in February. Bates expressed her commitment to being available for the New Zealand T20I and ODI series against South Africa in March.
“I’m gutted to be missing out this summer, I was really looking forward to another season with the Sparks, especially the Super Smash,” said Bates. “I’m determined to get back on the field with the White Ferns in March, so that’ll be my focus for now.”
The Super Smash presented by KFC starts on December 26 at Seddon Park between hosts Northern Brave and Auckland Aces and Hearts.
The 38-year-old Bates is a former captain of the national women’s cricket team. She currently holds the highest score and highest batting average in the New Zealand Women’s Twenty20 cricket team. Bates won the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year award in 2013.
In addition to her cricket career, Bates represented New Zealand in women’s basketball during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She played professional basketball for teams in the National Basketball League (NBL) in her home country and the Australian Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) before switching to cricket full-time after the 2008 Olympics.
In August 2018, she was awarded a central contract by New Zealand Cricket, following the tours of Ireland and England in the previous months. In September 2018, she stepped down as captain of New Zealand and was replaced by Amy Satterthwaite.