Viewed IPL as an opportunity to gain experience and learn, reveals Kane Williamson

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has been one of the rare few one-franchise overseas players in the Indian Premier League (IPL), having played only for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) since making his IPL debut in 2015. The right-hander’s moment of reckoning came in IPL 2018, when he was appointed the franchise’s skipper on the back of David Warner’s ban, and Williamson grasped his opportunity with both hands, as apart from scoring an astonishing 735 runs with the bat, the 29-year-old led the franchise to the final of the tournament. 

Now an SRH veteran, having spent five full seasons with the franchise, Williamson revealed that he walked into the competition with the sole aim of gaining experience and improving as a player. The Kiwi skipper also praised the standard of cricket in the competition and branded it the biggest domestic league in the world.

"The initial interest was obviously watching the IPL and seeing how big it was, it is the biggest domestic competition, T20 cricket being relatively new, what I saw was an opportunity to gain experience and learn," Williamson told Ravichandran Ashwin on the spinner's YouTube show titled 'DRS with Ash'.

"For us, to see the passion for cricket in India is an amazing thing, it is a brilliant competition and there is a high standard, a lot of other countries have followed suit to start their leagues.”

The franchise re-appointed Warner as the captain a few months ago, but Williamson, who skippered the franchise for two seasons, revealed that he found leading SRH pretty different to captaining New Zealand. Williamson revealed that it is important to keep an open mind while skippering an IPL franchise and insisted on the importance of adapting to the culture, but claimed that he thoroughly enjoyed captaining the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise.

"It is quite different to lead New Zealand and an IPL franchise, initially I did not know what to expect, but like I mentioned it is an Indian competition so you are coming into quite a different culture, I was trying to keep an open mind, there is a lot of experience in all of the groups, it was an enjoyable season to lead the SunRisers Hyderabad.

"The support staff have been there at Hyderabad for a long time and they have enjoyed success, it was about maintaining the style of play that we are known for.”

Despite replacing him as captain, SRH retained Williamson ahead of the 2020 edition of the tournament. Thus far, in his IPL career, the elegant right-hander has scored 1302 in just 41 games at an exceptional average of 38.29.