IPL 2018: Dean Jones advices out-of-form Rahane and Gambhir to learn from Williamson

Former Australian Dean Jones suggests Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir to take batting cues from New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who is playing exceptionally good cricket in this edition of Indian Premier League. The Kiwi batsman is the leading run-scorer for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018. Rahane & Gambhir are going through a rough patch in this edition of the tournament.

After performing poorly Gambhir even resigned from Delhi Daredevil's captaincy midway. He has also not been the part of playing XI from past few matches.

During his interaction with PTI Dean Jones was in full praise of the Kiwi skipper as he stated " "I did expect Williamson to do well. (David) Warner (Australia) not playing here has helped him enormously,"

"Given the opportunity you take it and he has picked it with both hands and reminded everyone in the world, because it is the best T20 League in the world, how good he is," he said.
Jones, whose most famous Test innings was a double century he struck in stifling heat and humidity in the tied Test against India at Chennai in 1986, noted that Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Williamson has played with far more freedom and gets into a classical position before he hits the ball.

"Because of that, he has built confidence. And now Sunrisers have put a lot of pressure on him, because if he hadn't made any runs, Sunrisers would have been in lot of trouble. But he has been the glue.

"You have other guys like (Gautam) Gambhir (who quit midway as captain of Delhi Daredevils), (Ajinkya) Rahane, for example, also classical players who might be wise to give him a call, watch him and see how he has gone about getting his strike rates into 130s-140s.

"You tell me that Kane Williamson (who has scored 625 runs from 13 games so far) is stronger than Rahane and Gambhir, of course not, but the fact is that he has played with a bit more freedom and he gets into classic positions before he hits a ball. He has done very well and shown there is a spot in T20 for classical player, Jones explained. 

(With PTI Inputs)