Williamson set to

Black Caps captain Kane Williamson has been released by his IPL team, Sunrisers Hyderabad, ahead of the 2023 ‘mini auction’.

Williamson spent eight years at the franchise, and was their skipper and most expensive player during this year’s campaign, but has paid the price for his recent struggles in the T20 game.

The 32-year-old had been one of three players retained by the franchise ahead of this year’s auction, with the Sunrisers spending INR 14 crore (NZ$2.8m) – the highest retention price for an overseas player. Williamson has played 76 matches for the Sunrisers, and captained them 46 times, scoring 2101 runs at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03. However, 2022 was a struggle for him.

Nursing his troublesome elbow injury, he managed only 216 runs in the IPL this year, at 19.63 and a strike rate of 93.50 – the lowest strike rate for any batter in the tournament who faced at least 100 balls, as his side finished eighth of 10 teams for a second year running.

Williamson then also had his struggles with the Black Caps in the shortest format, and while he scored 178 runs at 35.60 during