Current New Zealand captain Kane Williamson is struggling with “mental fatigue”. This week he was rested from Yorkshire’s line up that triggered the alarm bell. Yorkshire county’s director Martyn Moxon told English media.
New Zealand will tour Zimbabwe and South Africa. New Zealand’s recent international tournament came in the World T20 in India. After World T20, cricketers from the island scattered to play in different leagues around the globe.
The Black Caps will start their season of 14 Test and 19 ODI matches and four T20 internationals from South Africa. The news of Kane Williamson’s mental fatigue is not a good for New Zealand. Williamson has become the new captain of New Zealand after Brendon McCullum bid the international cricket goodbye.
Coach Mike Hesson is worried. “I read that this morning as well but I’ve spoken to Kane many times and he’s fine and very much looking forward to getting over there,” he said at Auckland Airport.
Williamson last Christmas was announced as the best Test batsman and has been playing non-stop cricket since then.
He played in the Indian Premier League and then went to his hometown in Tauranga and after that, he flew to England to play county cricket for the Yorkshire. He has played 11 matches and scored only a half-century against Derbyshire. On Sunday he scored 65 off 45 balls to win the match for Yorkshire.
He also scored 0 and 10 against Middlesex and 28 and 4 against Durham in two first-class matches.
Willaimson is the 29th captain of the New Zealand. He got a great team to lead. Former captain Brendon McCullum made a team who can win matches in any given conditions.
Now Williamson has a big job ahead to lead the country to excellence. Kane himself is one of the best batsman in the world as his prolific batting mesmerize many cricket fans over the years. However, if fatigue becomes a problem for Williamson he will be rested and senior members of the team like Ross Taylor, Tim Southee or BJ Watling will be given the job of captaincy for the first couple of matches of their new season.
“We’ve got a number of leaders in the group, Tim [Southee] being one of them. That’s the strength of the group is that it won’t be left up to Kane. There will be a number of different people contributing.”
New Zealand have set a camp in Pretoria, South Africa that will help Hesson’s players get in mojo before the long gruelling season starts. New Zealand will get fresh service of Trent Boult and Tim Southee who have great series against Australia in 2015 as they are coming back in cricket after taking a month of rest . New Zealand played their last Test series in 2015.
“In test cricket, he [Boult] has certainly been a huge player for us. It’s been a frustrating few months for Trent but it’s also given him a chance to get his strength and conditioning back in order and hopefully, he’s ready to go,” Hesson said.
New Zealand also got great spin talents in Ish Sodhi and Mark Craig who will play the series in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Tom Latham and Martin Guptill, who is currently playing in Caribbean Premier League (CPL), will open the innings. Jeet Raval, who for the first time selected in the team, will be the backup.
The first Test of the Zimbabwe and New Zealand will start on 22 July.