Kane Williamson praised Hardik Pandya’s leadership and his great mental resolve in the last year.
Hardik Pandya has repeatedly shown that he has a great head on his shoulders. Not many can handle what Hardik endured during the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League and still sport a smile. Mumbai Indians’ captaincy change from Rohit Sharma to Hardik did not go down well with the franchise’s fans, and as a result, the all-rounder was given a hard time at every venue.
Fans mercilessly booed Hardik whenever he stepped out in the middle. Even his performances dipped with both bat and ball. However, the 31-year-old stepped up in the T20 World Cup 2024 for India, helping Rohit Sharma and co break the ICC title jinx. This showing brought the fans back into Hardik’s corner.
Kane Williamson, Hardik Pandya’s former teammate at Gujarat Titans, is a fan of how the Indian all-rounder has approached things and shown great mental resolve to come out on top. The former New Zealand captain also raved about Hardik’s abilities as an all-rounder.
“Hardik’s been around for a number of years, and he’s experienced a number of highs and some lows. And I think having all of those experiences under the belt gives you a pretty good stead when perhaps you are under a little bit of pressure, or things aren’t going as well as you would like. And that certainly happens for everybody. But his ability to work through that, come out the other side and put up the performances that he’s done, not just the quality of player, but certainly showing leadership as well in really big moments of games, has been great to watch,” Williamson said while replying to a Hindustan Times query during a select media interaction.
“And it was always a pleasure to play alongside him and be involved with GT under his captaincy. So I’ve got no doubt Mumbai are going to be pretty well-placed in the competition. They’ve got a lot of strong leaders on their side and so many amazing local players. But they have a very strong roster. So yeah, I’m sure they’ll be there or thereabouts,” added Williamson, who will be doing commentary in the 18th edition of the IPL.
Williamson, who led New Zealand to the World Test Championship (WTC) triumph in 2021, also gave a measured response when asked whether the impact player rule negates the all-rounder in the shortest format. Kane agreed to the all-rounder’s impact being reduced, but he also raised how the game has become more interesting and entertaining.
The impact player rule allows teams to bring in a substitute at any time for a player in the initial starting XI. This rule has led to scores skyrocketing in the cash-rich league.
“I mean, it does negate the impact a little bit, yes. It gives every team a little bit more depth than in all departments, really. The fact that you decide your team after the toss, therefore, shapes that impact player and how you want to approach the game. You go in with sort of five front-liners now and perhaps another sixth option. I think most teams sometimes have even more than that. And then with the bat, most teams are batting to eight and even deeper. And as we know in T20 cricket, the percentage of balls past seven that batsmen face are very, very low,” said JioStar Expert Williamson while replying to another Hindustan Times question.
“So naturally, that sort of tells you that the all-round option is perhaps it’s still attractive, but not quite as important as it has been in the past, where you’re trying to get that real strong balance in your side by having one or having the luxury of maybe even two all-rounders, which really gives you that. So it does. But then also, there are some positives, for sure, that it’s changed the game. I saw some numbers recently that naturally run rates have all increased,” he added.
Speaking about the scores last season, Kane said, “We saw the scores last season, which were out of this world. So coming into this season and seeing that last year, whether that’s the norm again, I can only imagine most teams are going to try and push the boundary of scoring again, which I think everybody enjoyed watching, whilst trying to continue to provide a balance for bowlers too,” he added.
‘Virat’s going to have a lot of impact’
Kane Williamson, who was earlier described as a “good friend” by Virat Kohli after India defeated New Zealand in the Champions Trophy, believes that the India maverick will have a big impact in the 18th edition of the IPL. The world is waiting to see how Virat approaches the shortest format, having retired from T20Is last year.
“He’s going to have a big impact again as he has done in almost every season of this tournament. I think it’s quite interesting as you see players kind of go into different stages of their career and different phases. He’s obviously been on the scene for a number of years, but their style perhaps adjusts a little bit. But the hunger remains and the passion remains and we’ve seen that in his performances recently as well. So, I know he’s extremely motivated with RCB to push for a title and I’m sure this season they’ll be there or thereabouts,” said Kane.
Lastly, Kane Williamson stated that he doesn’t know how much help the bowlers will get even if they are allowed to apply saliva to the ball in the IPL. The BCCI lifted the ban on using saliva after all ten captains agreed to it.
“Over my time in white-ball cricket, it has been tough to shine the ball. I guess we will find out about its impact. It might add some benefits, if it swings. It brings the seam bowlers in the game a lot more. The pitches are good to bat on and the boundary size is on the smaller side in the IPL, so having the ball swing, if applying saliva can help that, it would be great for the competition,” concluded Kane.
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- Hardik Pandya
- Kane Williamson
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