On the rare occasions when India’s menacing pace attack failed to cut through the opposition line-up in this World Cup, their spinners did the job in their own way. However, according to batting great Sunil Gavaskar, that might not be the case when Kane Williamson leads New Zealand in the first semi-final against the in-form hosts on Wednesday. Highlighting Williamson’s adept footwork and strategic approach, Gavaskar opined that the Kiwis skipper will have no difficulty negotiating with the Indian spinners, especially the unorthodox Kuldeep Yadav.
“He is such a great player; it doesn’t matter if he comes from a big breakthrough and has scored runs. So I don’t think it will make much difference,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“He uses his feet very well to go down the field and to nip the corner when necessary; he will also use the crease. So he is a very good player. I don’t think he will worry about it to play.” Kuldeep; he will know how to handle him.”
Gavaskar said Williamson’s cricket at this World Cup was not all about technical knowledge and cultivated strokeplay as the affable Kiwi has also shown a tendency to take the aerial route, which is a far cry from his 2019 avatar.
“If you have to, you don’t want to hit him on boundaries; just get rid of him for six singles if you have to. Then six runs per over is a good scoring rate by any standard, so he will try to do that.”
“If the boundary ball comes past, he will hit the boundary ball, so we have seen his willingness to take more risks. We may not have seen that side of Kane Williamson in 2019, but here we have seen him take the ball.” air route.
“He recently got out on a shot for a 100; he got out on 95, but that’s because he had taken the air route, and he will probably try to do the same against Kuldeep Yadav,” Gavaskar concluded.
India are considered favorites against New Zealand in what will be a repeat of the last four clashes from four years ago in the 2019 edition.
The Black Caps were the last to book the semi-finals, with India the first team in the last four, followed by South Africa and Australia.
India are undefeated in the World Cup so far, having won all nine of their league matches and are the only team to do so.
Topics mentioned in this article