Sports

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is the new Dhoni

Shadab AhmedMarch 30, 2016 | 09:59 IST

He is one of the most dynamic batsmen in the world at present. He has been one of the top run scorers in every form of cricket in the past couple of years. He is the pivot on which his team’s batting revolves. He is calm, composed and shoulders the responsibilities of captaincy with panache. He is Kane Williamson and can rightly be called as the new "Captain Cool", or "Captain Kool".

When you are handed over the responsibility of leading your national team, the burden is huge, the expectations are huge. And, he had to step into the shoes of a captain who was more than a player. Yes, Williamson was coferred the extremely tough job of leading his team after the retirement of an icon - Brendon McCullum.

McCullum was someone who would take on the opposition anywhere in the world and lead from the front. When he retired, he left behind a team that had the capability to beat any side, on a given day, in any format.

But he retired just before the World T20. And Williamson was chosen to fulfil the dream of the Black Caps to win a world championship. They did come very close under McCullum to be the ODI champions last year, but they lost the World Cup final to archrivals Australia.

Williamson had led the team in absence of McCullum before. But now the job is a full time one. And now, in his first major assignment as captain, the Kiwis have reached the semi-final of the World T20 without losing a single match.

Williamson's captaincy has been nothing short of brave, aggressive and shows elements of his predecessor McCullum. In the first match the World T20 he picked three spinners and outplayed hosts India at its own game.

Even in very tight matches against Pakistan and Australia, he took his team to victory. The Kiwis trounced Bangladesh to win four out of four and move to the last four in style.

Amidst all this, Williamson remains calm, and cool as cucumber, never letting anything to ruffle him, just like the original captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In the same manner as Dhoni, Williamson rarely shows emotions on the field. He is always thinking, and it is very clear that he has got a fine cricketing brain.

At nearly 25 he has already established himself as one of the top batsmen of the present day, along with India’s Virat Kohli, Australia’s Steve Smith and England’s Joe Root.

Interestingly, Kohli is already captain of India’s Test team and it is very imminent that he would take over from Dhoni in other formats too after the latter calls it a day.

Smith is leading the Australian side, and Root is touted as the future captain of England. Williamson, on the other hand, is the captain of New Zealand in all formats.

He has proved himself as a tough competitor, with a super cool head on his shoulders. And he is rightly compared with Dhoni.

Last updated: March 30, 2016 | 10:01
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