Wellington, July 4: Black Caps coach John Wright has named Kane Williamson skipper, making him the youngest to lead New Zealand, for the five-match one-day international series against the West Indies that starts on Friday.
Williamson will be 21 years and 332 days old when he takes the reins instead of the injured Ross Taylor, making him the second-youngest player to lead an international ODI side, and comfortably New Zealand’s youngest.
Stephen Fleming was a week shy of his 24th birthday when he first did the job in 1997, stuff.co.nz reports.
“It’s the sort of leadership thing you don''t want to thrust on [Williamson] too early but, to be quite frank, he''s probably had more captaincy experience than most of the players in the party so he was the obvious choice,” Wright said.
Leading his Gloucestershire side in English county cricket last winter, Williamson regularly chose himself to bowl the first over, saving Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralidharan for later.
Williamson was a surprise selection then by Kiwi coach John Bracewell, who clearly saw leadership potential in the young Northern Districts batsman.
From an early age he has been earmarked as a future New Zealand skipper, but Wright warns him of challenges ahead.
“He seems to enjoy it. And I thought he was very competent [in the Twenty20 game]. He''s very young in his cricketing years and you don''t want to throw too much at him. [But] he''s had some experience with Gloucestershire,” Wright said.
© ANI
