New challenge
Caps skipper improving as a leader in India
Black Caps captain Kane Williamson is making a good fist of his first stint as a skipper in the Indian Premier League. The Sunrisers Hyderabad sit top of the table, he’s among the top run-scorers and is relishing the fresh challenge of leading a diverse group of players from different countries.
No David Warner? No problem for the Sunrisers Hyderabad as they sit top of the Indian Premier League at the halfway point.
They’ve won six and lost two. Only Virat Kohli, among those who had played eight innings, had more runs than Hyderabad’s captain.
And it’s fair to say Kane Williamson’s development as a skipper is making solid strides. Captaining a national team is far different than pulling together the range of diverse strands in a franchise cricket team but New Zealand’s leader is handling it with considerable aplomb.
Hyderabad could have had problems when the belligerent Australian Warner was rubbed out of the competition in the wake of his year-long ban for ball tampering in South Africa this year. Instead Williamson has proved the ideal replacement.
“In the last few years, he’s been arguably the best player in the IPL,” Williamson said of Warner. “For us, he’s been phenomenal and led the team well, so naturally it’s a loss for us. But as team, we’ve had to drop the shoulder and move on.”
Coach Tom Moody can’t sing Williamson’s praises too highly; the player himself is just relishing the nature of the role.
“It has different challenges but fortunately we’ve got such a good bunch of guys,” Williamson said from Hyderabad ahead of a double header tonight and Monday against Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he could potentially come up against six of his New Zealand teammates.
“There are different conversations you might have in franchise sport [that you don’t have in] an international set-up. I’ve enjoyed learning some of the different parts of captaincy, and it has been a learning curve.”
Williamson has led New Zealand in 103 of his 243 internationals — 17 tests, 53 ODIs and 33 T20s. But the IPL is a different beast. His modus operandi at Hyderabad might best be described as a collective. There’s no “we’ll do it this way”; more a case of getting buy-in from a range of players drawn from round the cricket world, then make considered judgements.
Other internationals at Hyderabad include West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, Bangladesh’s Shakib al Hasan, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, and Englishmen Alex Hales and Chris Jordan, along with prominent Indians Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whose 26 wickets last season were the IPL’s best.
“Coming in, I was curious about some of the differences I might face between captaining your country versus a franchise here. I’m a believer we are playing in an Indian team.
“I know it’s a bit of a world team but it’s an Indian competition. I have always been of a belief you want to hear other voices. If you walk in one direction, guys need to have a say in that, otherwise it’s quite difficult for them to embrace.”
Williamson has not captained any of his players before this campaign. By his count, there are 14 who weren’t at Hyderabad last year.
“A lot of these guys know the opposition well and it would be wrong if I thought I could come over here and walk a path that didn’t consider the other guys in the team.”
I have always been of a belief you want to hear other voices. Kane Williamson
Leading by example doesn’t hurt either. Williamson described his form — 322 runs at 46 with a strike rate of 133 — as “okay”
“I’m just working away. It’s been quite interesting. The first few games, we were chasing lower totals, so you’re trying to adapt your game on those surfaces. In the last few, we’ve been batting first and have had unique surfaces again.”
Williamson said the pitches have been more variable in quality than previous seasons. There had been few of the 180-run nature and that’s led to plenty of what he called “scrappy” games. But Hyderabad’s bowling and fielding has been impressive, and that’s enabled Williamson’s team to defend strongly and build momentum.
Former Australian player Moody is rapt with Williamson’s work and manner. He believes there is “an incredible drive from within” in Williamson, while his modest manner has allowed players to easily warm and connect to him.
“And that’s important from a leadership perspective, and particularly in a multi-cultural environment,” said Moody.