New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who captained the Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2022, was one of 12 players on the pitch list released by the franchise on Tuesday ahead of next month’s IPL mini-auction in Kochi. . Hyderabad made Williamson their captain ahead of the 2022 IPL season after a dispute with David Warner in the 2021 season. They also retained him for the whopping sum of Rs 14 crores.
But Hyderabad won just six of 14 matches, despite winning five matches in the first half of the 2022 IPL season. After recovering from an elbow injury, Williamson was far from his prime with the bat, scoring just 216 runs. in 13 innings with a strike rate of 93.50.
After Hyderabad announced that they would not be retaining Williamson, India’s T20 stand-in captain Hardik Pandya was asked if his team, the defending champions Gujarat Titans, would be interested in acquiring the right-handed batsman.
Pandya decided not to speak much on the matter. “I don’t know, it’s too far to think now. Asked if he thinks Williamson will be picked through the IPL auction, he said: ‘Yeah, why not, but right now I’m playing for India.’
Overall, Williamson scored 2021 runs for Hyderabad in eight IPL seasons with an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03. Under his leadership, Hyderabad’s best result was a second place finish in IPL 2018, after losing to Chennai Super Kings in the final.
Williamson wrote on his official Instagram account, “Thank you Sunrisers Hyderabad and my friends for an enjoyable 8 years. This team and the city of Hyderabad will always be very special to me.” That season, Williamson was the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 735 runs at an average of 52.50 and a strike rate of 142.44.