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Cricket News: “14cr!” Kane Williamson’s low strike rate hurting SRH in IPL 2022 | Kane Williamson struggling for fluency in IPL 2022

The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League is in full flow and one of the recurring themes thus far as far as batsmen are concerned is the struggle of anchor top-order batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli.

Williamson, especially, has looked a pale shadow of his former self following his return to competitive cricket after recovering from tennis elbow injury. The Kiwi batsman, who was retained as their skipper by the ‘Orange Army’ ahead of the mega-auction has managed just 199 runs in 11 innings at an average of 19.90.

But, more than the average, it’s his strike rate that’s been the biggest cause of concern, and in many ways, it has negatively impacted his team.

In a side filled with intent merchants like Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Abhishek Sharma and Nicholas Pooran, Williamson’s knocks have pegged SRH back, especially when they are chasing. In fact, he is the only player to have faced 150+ balls and have a strike rate below 100 in IPL 2022.

In the fixture against the Chennai Super Kings, Williamson scored 47 off 37 deliveries with the help of two fours and as many sixes.

Now, such a knock might look good in isolation, but if one considers the context of the game, it proved to be a match-losing knock for the former champions.

SunRisers were chasing 203 in 20 overs, and with Sharma and Rahul Tripathi getting dismissed in quick succession, SRH needed their skipper to up the ante during the middle-overs and spearhead the innings.

But, that wasn’t to be. Williamson, who had managed 18 runs off his first 12 deliveries in the powerplay, scored just 13 off the next 13 before eventually getting dismissed for 47 off 37.

SRH in IPL 2022: Kane Williamson’s batting impact is -73

This is not the only knock from Williamson that has severely impacted SRH’s fortunes this season. 

In fact, according to CricViz, the net impact of Kane’s knocks this season was minus 73 after nine games.

Having won five out of their first nine games, SunRisers have had a brilliant season so far. However, that’s largely due to their brilliant seam attack and the intentful batting from Sharma, Tripathi and Markram.

The trio has consistently managed to cover up for Kane’s poor knocks but SRH witnessed the harsh reality of what happens when they get dismissed early, as it happened in the last game.

Williamson is in the midst of a poor form but he is far too good a batsman to not recover from it. SRH will hope that their talismanic skipper regains his past mojo as the season approaches its business end.

Written by Yash Mittal. Follow Yash on Twitter today.