What’s the story?
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson called upon his side to play aggressive cricket in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy event in England insisting that there is very little room for error in the eight-team tournament that begins next month.
Backing his former skipper Brendon McCullum’s methods, Williamson feels that there is hardly any time for a side to recover if they don’t start off well and wants his side to shun conservative cricket during the tournament.
"With so many teams that are strong contenders, you need to go out and play with that freedom, be prepared to take the game on and hope things fall in your favour,” Williamson told, addressing the media. "There's not much time for slip-ups or for conservative cricket," he added.
Williamson picked hosts England as one of the strongest contenders for the title citing their strong batting line-up which boasts explosive players like Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes.
"Absolutely a realistic contender," Williamson said of the hosts. "The power, particularly in the batting line up that they show throughout, down perhaps to 10, is a real strength of theirs."
The background
Williamson missed New Zealand’s recent tri-series victory over Bangladesh and Ireland as he was with the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the IPL and will be keen to acclimatise to the conditions in England sooner rather than later with the Black Caps taking on against Australia in their first group fixture on June 2.
Bangladesh and hosts England are the other two teams in New Zealand’s group and reaffirming the Kiwi skipper’s words was Bangladesh’s first victory over New Zealand on foreign soil when they beat them by 5 wickets on Wednesday, albeit in a dead rubber.
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The details
Williamson has led the side well since taking over from Brendon McCullum in all formats of the game and finished top of the standings at the 2016 ICC World T20 in a group which included hosts India as well as Trans-Tasman rivals Australia, alongside Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Their run came to an end at the semi-final stage at the hands of England and the skipper feels that the Champions Trophy has a good chance of emulating their run to the finals and perhaps go one better this time around.
Former cricketers Kapil Dev, Michael Hussey, and Brian Lara have already pointed out England as one of the contenders for the tournament and given their strength in depth in the batting department, Williamson sees no reason why they shouldn’t do well.
As for how he would be approaching the matches as a skipper, the 26-year-old insists that it is important to make a good start as there is very little chance to recover in a tournament like this where fixtures come thick and fast one after the other.
What’s next?
Having already got their Champions Trophy preparations underway with the tri-series involving Bangladesh and Ireland, New Zealand will take on a much stronger opposition in the warm-up fixtures for the ICC event beginning with the match against India on Sunday followed by a clash against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Author’s take
Having experienced a major ICC event already as skipper, Williamson knows how hard it is to win the trophy as one bad day can spoil all the hard work that has been put in.
Playing under the fearless Brendon McCullum helped Williamson gain some perspective on how to approach the matches and he is banking on the same principles for the Champions Trophy as well and why not. It’s certainly one which has helped New Zealand perform well in their two recent ICC events.
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