IPL 2022: This is the right time to drop Kane Williamson – Virender Sehwag

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels it is the right time to drop Kane Williamson as the SRH captain is not delivering the goods with the bat.

Williamson is struggling to get going with the bat and he has even struggled to score at run-a-ball in IPL 2022.

The right-hander hasn’t been able to lead from the front and he has put his team under pressure by not scoring at a brisk pace. Williamson has scored 208 runs in 12 matches at an average of 18.91 and a mundane strike rate of 92.85. The stylish batter has failed to find any kind of momentum in his batting and he has certainly let the team down with his poor performances.

Williamson meandered to nine runs off 16 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Saturday. On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma was able to hit the ground running but the youngster didn’t get the support of his captain from the other end.

Sehwag believes Williamson should decide to give the captaincy to some other player and he should be dropped as he isn’t contributing with the bat.

Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz, “How will the team fight when their leader isn’t doing well? Kane Williamson will have to score runs and that too at a better strike rate. His partner Abhishek Sharma is trying to make the most of the powerplay, but isn’t getting the support from the other end. Kane Williamson should take a break and give the captaincy to someone else. This is the right time to drop Williamson.”

“We all expected Kane Williamson to fire with the bat today. But things did not change. He was again dismissed early and even the other batters did not stand up. SRH haven’t been playing that well lately. You need to play 40 overs of good cricket to win a match.”

Meanwhile, Sehwag reckons SRH conceded a lot of runs in the death overs and it was always going to be a formality in the second innings as KKR had posted an above-par score on a difficult pitch.

“Even if KKR had scored 150, it would have been enough on this wicket. We saw how GT defended such a score against LSG at this venue. SRH allowed KKR to score a lot of runs on such a wicket. It was just a formality in the second innings.”

SRH will next face Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.