Kane Williamson will lead SRH in IPL 2018.
Kane Williamson will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad during Indian Premier League 2018, the team announced on Thursday. The New Zealand captain will replace David Warner as the skipper of the side. SRH were forced to name a new captain after Warner stepped down and was later banned from playing the 11th edition of IPL along with Australia captain Steve Smith in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal that broke out last week.
Making the announcement, K Shanmugam, CEO of Sunrisers Hyderabad, said in a tweet from the official account of the franchise, “We are happy to announce Kane Williamson as the captain of SunRisers Hyderabad for IPL 2018.” Accepting the role, Williamson, in the same tweet said, “I’ve accepted the role to stand in as captain for this season. It’s an exciting opportunity with a talented group of players. I look forward to the challenges ahead.”
The New Zealand captain made his IPL debut with Chennai Super Kings in 2015. In his three years, the right-hand batsman has played 15 years, scoring 411 runs in the tournament at an average of 31.62 with a strike rate of 129.25. Williamson, who played for SRH in the past two seasons, was bought again this year by the franchise for Rs 3 crore at the auction in January.
The IPL 2018 begins from April 7 but Warner and Smith will not be part of it as BCCI banned them from the tournament after consulting Cricket Australia, which has banned its two players for 12 months in the aftermath of the ball-tampering incident.