Don't think Williamson will be fussed about facing Kuldeep Yadav: Sunil

NEW DELHI: Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar opines that New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson will not have many problems facing the star Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav and will look to take the aerial route against the bowler. India will take on New Zealand in the first semifinal of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Wednesday.

While Kiwis will be aiming to reach their third successive World Cup final after 2015 and 2019, India will be looking forward to overcoming the knockout hurdle that has not let them win a major ICC title since 2013 and that too against a team that has given them the most trouble in must-win matches.

"He (Williamson) is such a great player; it doesn't matter if he has come out from a big break and he has scored runs. So, I do not think it is going to make much of a difference. He uses his feet really well to go down the pitch to smother the turn if needed; he then goes and uses the crease as well. So, he is a very good player," said Gavaskar to Star Sports.

"I do not think he is going to be fussed about playing Kuldeep; he will know how to tackle him. If needed, you do not want to hit him for boundaries; just work it away for six singles if that is required. Then, six runs an over is a good scoring rate by any standard, so he will look to do that. When the boundary ball comes along, he will hit the boundary ball, so we have seen his willingness to take more risks.

We have not seen that side of Kane Williamson maybe in 2019, but here, we have seen him take the aerial route. He got out on a shot for a 100 the other day; he got out on 95, but that is because he had taken the aerial route, and he will probably look to do that against Kuldeep Yadav as well," he added. Williamson missed a better part of the tournament due to injuries. But in three matches he has played, the Kiwi skipper has scored 187 runs at an average of 93.50, with two half-centuries and best score of 95.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep has been one of the best spinners in this tournament, taking 14 wickets in nine matches at an average of 22.28 and a strike rate of 32.21. His best bowling figures are 2/7.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young.