New Zealand captain Kane Williamson became the first player to be sold in the Indian T20 League 2023 auction on Friday as the defending champions Gujarat franchise bought him at his base price of ? 2 crore. Williamson was released by the Hyderabad franchise this year after a string of poor results under his captaincy in the Indian T20 League 2022. Hyderabad finished 8th this season and couldn’t go past the group stage.
While Hyderabad finished at the eighth place after being in the top two halfway through the season, Williamson also didn’t have a great outing with the bat last season. He could only score 216 runs in 13 matches at an average of 19.64 and a strike rate of 93.51 with just one half-century.
In his career in the Indian T20 League, Williamson has scored 2101 runs at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03. He has 18 half-centuries to his name with the highest score of 89. He even won the coveted Orange Cap for finishing as the highest run scorer in the 2018 season with 735 runs to his name.
He captained the Hyderabad side in 2018 and led them to the final of the tournament. The New Zealand limited-overs skipper was the first player retained by Hyderabad ahead of the mega auction in 2022, with a salary of Rs 14 crore.
The 32-year-old will be reunited with his old teammate from Hyderabad Rashid Khan in Gujarat. Led by Hardik Pandya, Gujarat emerged victorious in their first-ever season and will look to defend their title in the upcoming season.
Kane Williamson quit Test Captaincy recently
Williamson has been in good form with the bat this year in T20Is scoring 443 runs in 13 innings at an average of 36.91 and a strike rate of 118. He has three half-centuries in the format this year.
In this calendar year, Kane has played 2 Tests, 13 T20Is and 7 ODIs for New Zealand scoring 756 runs. He stepped down from New Zealand’s Test captaincy earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with reactions as Williamson got sold to Gujarat. Here are some of the Tweets:
In any case, Kane Williamson at the base price of 2 Cr is a very cheap purchase for @gujarat_titans. He will balance the top middle order.
— Siddharth Chhaya – ????????? ???? ?? (@siddtalks) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson at 2CR is not a bad deal at all. Nehra ji has some nack in T20 franchise cricket.
— Maharaj Patil (@IamViruLover) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson and Sunrisers part ways. It’s tough to be an @SunRisers supporter. Only ray of hope is the strong team we’re building. Exciting times ahead.
— Bhaskar Steve (@BhaskarSteve) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson to GT ?? pic.twitter.com/gmiRdpysHn
— Paapsee Tannu (@iamparodyyy) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson. Hope you find new success at your new team.
Thank you for everything, Captain! ?
— Front Foot Sam (@ffscricket) December 23, 2022
SRH replaced Kane Williamson with Harry Brook basically doing a Harry Kane
— SSRaghuvanshi (@raghuvanshi_ss) December 23, 2022
It felt like no one wanted to bid on first player. Very shocking prize for Kane Williamson. #IPL2023Auction #IPLAuction
— cool (@Show_V_) December 23, 2022
Srh had 13.25 crore for Harry brook but not 2 crore for bid for Kane Williamson!
— Anjali ? (@imAnjalii718) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson and Rashid Khan will again play together!#IPL2023Auction
— Abhimanyu (@abhimanyusrt) December 23, 2022
I think most of the matches he will be benched #KaneWilliamson #IPL2023Auction
— sangepu siva kumar ? (@sangepu_7) December 23, 2022
@SunRisers won't be the same with out #KaneWilliamson
— Vikas Kumar Goel (@iAmReAlVKG) December 23, 2022
Kane Williamson got a team ? meanwhile root, Rossouw can't get a team disappointed.
— Mr_Ak (@Mr_Ayanakouji) December 23, 2022
i cant watch Kane Williamson?? play for Hardik Pandya?
I just can't ? pic.twitter.com/qtLjAZRvTA— Prachi (@prachisunil6) December 23, 2022
