Adil Rashid Believes Kane Williamson will Bounce Back

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson’s recent struggles with the bat have added to the miseries of the Kiwis as they have had a poor home season, especially in the T20I’s.

Williamson has struggled with the bat in the home season as he scored 143 runs in nine T20I innings at an average of 17.88. He has crossed the score of 19 just once in the shortest format in 2018.

Except for the match-winning 72 against England in the tri-series, the Kiwi skipper has not played any significant innings.

However, his form in ODIs has been a lot better. In the three-match series against the West Indies and the five-match series against Pakistan, he had an overall average of 49.83.

However, England Leg-spinner Adil Rashid said that Williamson’s slump in form would not last long and the right-handed batsman will bounce back.

Rashid and Williamson play for the same county side Yorkshire. The statement comes a week after Rashid had announced that he would no longer play red ball cricket, domestically or at international level.

Rashid said:

“You know, I never thought of that. It didn’t cross my mind because we know Kane’s a world-class player. He performs all around the world and if he is going through a little patch – which I didn’t think he was – but if he is I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”

New Zealand have won their last eight ODIs, and Rashid said that his side is wary of the Black-Caps form in the 50 over format:

“I think Kane Williamson is leading them extremely well, they’re a very talented team, they’ve proven that in the one-dayers against Pakistan, they won 5-0.”

The 30-year-old, who has played ten tests, 59 ODIs and 28 T20 internationals, also spoke on his decision to give up red ball cricket and said that the decision was solely his own:

“It was something I felt like I had to do at this point of my career; something that’s been inside me for a little while. If I wasn’t giving 100 per cent, I can’t be letting the team down but also myself down. It was purely how I felt playing red-ball cricket – my mind wasn’t there, my heart’s not also there.”

However, the spinner has ruled out the possibility of playing the longer format again:

“If my mind or my heart changes, I could be going back to red-ball cricket next season.”

Here’s the news feed:

Adil Rashid and Alex Hales’ focus on white-ball cricket is a good decision – Moeen Ali

Black Caps select Ish Sodhi for the first two One-Dayers against England