It's Certainly Not The Preferred Thing: Kane Williamson On Missing England Tests For IPL

While some prominent these days are putting IPL ahead of their international duty, it’s not the case with New Zealand’s players, according to their captain Kane Williamson. The Kiwis are confirmed to play the ICC World Test Championship final, but before that, they will participate in a two-Test series in England. And Kane Williamson has declared that missing the Tests in England for IPL is not something they prefer.

It emerged that England’s multi-format players like Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, and Jofra Archer might miss the Test matches in England for the IPL 2021 knockouts. Furthermore, the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman have also reportedly opted out of the red-ball matches against Sri Lanka in April to be part of IPL. The two Bangladesh cricketers earned deals with Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals in this year’s auction.

According to Kane Williamson, he does not prefer playing IPL ahead of the Test matches. The elegant right-handed batsman understands that when the plans came in place, it was not the idea to clash the Test series in England and IPL and hardly the strategies today goes correctly.

“It’s certainly not the preferred thing. I know when plans were put in place that wasn’t the idea then, but as we’ve seen, you can make plans in this day in age and very rarely do they go to plan,” Williamson told ESPN Cricinfo.

We’ll just have to wait and see: Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson concluded that they have to adapt rapidly to the ever-changing circumstances and keep an eye on the final details. In the end, Williamson’s preference is to make himself available for national duties and wait and see how they could do it.

“For us it’s being able to adapt as quickly as possible, we still have to wait and see when dates are finalised to truly know what is happening before any decision is made but the ideal scenario is to be available and around for all that cricket. We’ll just have to wait and see,” he added.

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