Mumbai: New Zealand Skipper Kane Williamson feels that “a lot to be learnt” watching his contemporary Virat Kohli’s stellar performances in his recent innings. Kohli and Williamson had captained their respective countries at the U-19 level and are now considered to be among the best in their generation along with Australia’s Steve Smith and England’s Joe Root and the New Zealand captain said each has different strengths.
“Virat’s a great player and his ability to dominate attacks through all three formats is very special. Certainly that I admire, I love watching him play and learn from a player like that,” the current World No.3 in the ICC Test rankings told reporters during a media interaction on Tuesday.
The Kiwi captain said he is enjoying the competitionin world class cricket. “I am enjoying the challenge. We have a great bunch of guys and we are enjoying our cricket. We have to keep improving and that’s my focus as a captain. When I take that hat (captaincy) off, it’s my job as a batsman to play a role. It’s a slightly separate thing.” He said.
Williamson said that pitch is going to be a crucial part in the upcoming Test series. “We also need to take into account that pitches in the last few years have been different from what we have played in IPL. We have to take that into account.”
Martin Guptill’s form is of concern for the visitors but the Kiwi skipper believes Martin Guptill to get back in form in this Test series. “Martin (Guptill) is working very hard and he is a world class cricketer. He has shown that a lot in white ball format. We are backing him to see him do that in red ball format.”
Williamson chose to be modest when he was asked for any particular player as a threat to the Kiwis. “They have a lot of good players and we see them all as threats. They are good players at home in their conditions.”