October 11, 2019
The Hundred Draft: Kane Williamson will be in demand, says Simon Katich
The captaincy features of kane Williamson mean he will be throughout The Hundred Draft in high demand, says Manchester Originals head trainer Simon Katich.
New Zealand skipper Williamson has a strike-rate of 122 from Twenty20 global cricket – a structure thats viewed as his weakest – considerably below that of West Indies Chris Gayle (143) and Australias David Warner (140).
Even though Gayle and Warner will carry a reserve price of 125k in Sundays draft, together with Australia skipper Steve Smith (strike-rate 122), Williamson has put himself in the 100k bracket that means hell be available for two, rather than one round of picks.
Katich told Sky Sports News thatwithout doubt theres space for a batsman of all Williamsons temperament in the 100-ball contest, which gets underway at July 2020.
These guys add more than their batting Kane Williamson and Steve Smith particularly, said the former Australian batsman.
Theyre fantastic leaders and clearly have an impact on the remainder of the team and tactically theyre extremely good as well.
Williamson nearly led New Zealand to their first World Cup therefore, from that perspective, he will be in demand Id have thought.
Gayle is a challenging one since his type in the past couple of years has been exceptional, especially in the IPL and some of the other franchise tournaments he has played in.
But everyone has to weigh this up and see what suits the balance of the team the very best and whether hes got a role to perform.
He is up there with AB de Villiers as likely the greatest T20 batsman, so itll be interesting to see whether groups need him or her not.
Gayle was not picked while the ECB hosted a mock draft earlier this week, at which members of the media road-tested the laptops and technology to be utilized for the real thing.
Williamson was created their second pick to match a order boasting volatile hitters by sky Sports Tom Banton, Jonny Bairstow and Colin Ingram.
Katich confessed that finding the ideal balance will be among the challenges come Sundays draft.
If you are spending high dollar you expect those men to be game-changers as theyre quite few and far between but they also play roles where they will have a really major opportunity to impact the game, he explained.
At a draft like that there are going to be some interesting strategies because using three abroad picks theres the opportunity to contract them at any phase of this draft, therefore it doesnt necessarily need to be at the top.
It will be interesting to determine how the game along with the format evolves since an innings with 20 balls less than T20 may have a different effect on the batsmans mindset and the way they need to start structuring their innings.
Bowlers are going to be under stress also earlier in their charms since there are fewer chunks to get on it
The Hundred Draft – Live will be displayed on Sky Sports Cricket, Sky One, Main Event & from 7pm.
It is going to also be accessible through Sky Sports Facebook and YouTube stations, in addition to live on the Sky Sports app and streamed skysports.com.