Skipper keen to play all formats
‘‘It is a balancing act because the volume of cricket seems to increase every year.’’
New Zealand captain
Kane Williamson
Kane Williamson insists he wants to continue playing all cricketing formats for New Zealand but his creaky back is raising a point of order.
New Zealand’s captain goes into tonight’s Twenty20 tri-series international against England in Wellington under an injury cloud, which saw Henry Nicholls whistled up as injury cover yesterday.
Williamson said he was ‘‘100-ish’’ per cent but his back niggle was serious enough to summon Nicholls from Christchurch. On evidence of training, where Williamson had his usual lengthy net session at the Basin Reserve, the skipper will play but a decision won’t be made until a final assessment on match day.
Rival skipper Eoin Morgan appears in more doubt with the groin injury that ruled him out of Saturday’s seven-wicket defeat to Australia in Melbourne, with Jos Buttler set to continue in charge.
Williamson sat out New Zealand’s
last match in Wellington due to stiffness in his side, when they beat Pakistan by seven wickets on January 22 with Tim Southee at the helm.
Since then, the Black Caps’ three straight T20 defeats and as many single figure scores for Williamson raised legitimate questions about whether the workload of captaining his country in all three formats was too great. In eight T20 internationals since November, his numbers are very un-Williamson-like: 101 runs at an average of 14.43 and strike rate of 99.
While his rival test skippers Steve Smith and Joe Root sit out the T20 tri-series amid a hectic schedule for Australia and England, 27-year-old Williamson was not keen to follow suit.
‘‘I definitely want to play all three forms, without a doubt. It’s a challenge I look forward to,’’ he said.
‘‘At the same time, as we’ve seen this summer, guys have had time off and missed a few games. It is a balancing act because the volume of cricket seems to increase every year.’’
Williamson said he met former test bowler and now commentator Simon Doull, who wanted to clarify his radio comments where he called for Williamson to take a break from T20 internationals.
‘‘He’s looking a lot at volume of cricket, and bringing new players into the international game, and there’s sense that he makes but at the same time, from a personal perspective, T20 cricket is prevalent in the domestic and international game and you play a lot more of it nowadays and it’s something that you want to be a part of.’’
Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad, coached by Australian Tom Moody, certainly agreed when they bid $640,000 for Williamson at last month’s auction.
With the Black Caps having another six-month hiatus over winter, Williamson will head to the IPL in April then rejoin Yorkshire in English county cricket.
Of his own form, Williamson said it was not as good as he’d like.
‘‘You take risks in T20 cricket, sometimes it doesn’t come off. It can be frustrating and it is about going out and playing in the right style to move the team forward.’’
New Zealand are searching for a spark, 10 days since their sevenwicket defeat in Sydney when they managed just 117-9. England’s batting has flopped twice in Australia since.
Power hitters Mark Chapman and Tim Seifert eye their Black Caps debuts with the simple message: don’t change a thing. ‘‘He [Seifert] can score all round the ground and packs a punch and hits the ball a long way.’’
Seifert will be New Zealand’s third T20 gloveman in four matches after Glenn Phillips and Tom Blundell were jettisoned. He was informed by selector Gavin Larsen just as he was about to belt out the team song after Northern Districts beat Otago in Dunedin.
‘‘I’ve been batting well so I’m not going to change anything. I haven’t played these guys before and I’ll just back myself like I’ve been doing in the Super Smash,’’ he said.