Former Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson was bought by the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) at a base price of ₹2 crores at the recently concluded IPL 2023 auction in Kochi. The Titans made seven purchases at the auction to strengthen their squad for the coming seasons.
Head coach Ashish Nehra has said they already have a plan for the Kiwi captain for the upcoming edition of the cash-rich IPL. In conversation with Sportstar, he spoke about the role that will be assigned to Kane Williamson. He also added that skipper Hardik Pandya will continue to bat at No.4.
“Yes, of course. Somebody like Kane Williamson, you are looking at batting at No. 3,” said the 43-year-old.
“Hardik batted at No. 3 only once last year, otherwise he batted at No. 4. With Williamson at 3, Hardik will continue to bat at No. 4. We cannot think so far ahead since there’s still so much time for the IPL to begin. We will take a call closer to the tournament but I don’t think Hardik will bat down the order,” he added.
“There is no such thing as a finisher” – Ashish Nehra
Hardik Pandya, who plays the finisher’s role in the Indian team, mostly bats at number four for GT. There were a lot of questions in the last season as some of the experts initially wanted Pandya to bat down the order so that he could ace the finisher’s role.
However, Nehra doesn’t seem to believe much in the finisher philosophy and has his own reason behind the same.
“I feel there is no such thing as a finisher. If you are set and batting well, you are expected to finish the game. Even your opener can be your finisher,” the former world champion added.
Kane Williamson had a poor outing with the Sunrisers Hyderabad on the previous edition scoring just in excess of 200 runs at a strike rate just above a run a ball. He crossed the fifty mark only once.
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