Kane Williamson to miss Mumbai Test as well
New Zealand have taken a “cautious approach” with Kane Williamson by ruling out the star batter from the side’s third and final Test against India in Mumbai, starting November 1.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has hailed his predecessor Brendon McCullum for the impact the latter has had on the Black Caps and his approach to the game which has changed New Zealand cricket for the good. Notably, McCullum was the skipper of the Kiwis in all formats until 2016.
“Brendon led superbly well for such a long period of time and it was a great opportunity for me to learn from him. The challenges when Brendon left was two-fold, you are now playing without him as a player and as a leader. One of the challenges was that we wanted to continue to grow as a group,” said Williamson in an Instagram live video chat with Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal.
“There is change always and to embrace it you need to be authentic in leadership. In the case of our team there are other leaders in our team who can help younger players when they come through,” he added.
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Tamim then quizzed Williamson if the story that he had heard that McCullum used to see 50 over match as a 40 over match was true.
“In his own mind maybe,” said Williamson. “Sometimes he saw it as a T20 and Test cricket as an ODI game and then he would go out and score incredibly quickly,” he said.
“Brendon played his natural game and it brought a lot of success to us, Brendon was so gifted in his approach to the game, it really complimented the team in a big way.”
McCullum was known for his attacking style of play and he famously broke the record for the fastest Test hundred in his last Test for the Kiwis. His blistering 158 in the first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) match for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) helped IPL become an instant hit.
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