Kane Williamson left out of the main PSL 2025 draft, chosen in the supplementary round

David Warner, along with the captain, Shan Masood and Williamson, are teaming up at Karachi Kings for the Pakistan Super League. During the PSL 2025 draft's main rounds, they didn't choose Williamson, the right-handed batter.

Williamson, even though he registered himself in the platinum category, didn't get picked by any team in the first round, 10 players who were also in the platinum group were picked. This group included men from New Zealand, like Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Finn Allen, and Mark Chapman.

Sea View ke rang, Kane Williamson ke sang! 👑

Welcoming the the calm & classy 𝑲𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎𝒔𝒐𝒏 to #KingsSquad 💙❤️

See ya soon 👋#HBLPSLDraft | #DECADEOFHBLPSL | #YehHaiKarachi pic.twitter.com/bcR4d5Qkh7

— Karachi Kings (@KarachiKingsARY) January 13, 2025

Setbacks for Williamson: IPL Snub, Fitness Concerns, and Franchise Leagues

Kane Williamson is dealing with another tough time in his cricket life at the age of 34. Now, in the IPL 2025 player auction that happened in November 2024, no one picked to buy him even though his base price was INR 2 crores. This is because of after a bad IPL 2024 season where he played only two games for the Gujarat Titans.

The fact that Williamson didn't get picked for the IPL and also got overlooked in the platinum round of the PSL draft, really how his way of playing cricket is different from what T20 teams want now. They are players only concerned with hitting very strongly and executing unconventional moves, but that is not his style of play.

Williamson has scored 2,575 runs in T20I games for New Zealand, he is the player with the second highest runs for his country. However, his strike rate is at 122.79, is not enough for T20 cricket. Even though he usually does good, with an average 30, he isn't hitting the ball with speed and has a defensive mindset, has made it tough for him to secure spots on T20 teams.

In 2018, during the IPL, he performed well by making 735 runs, with a very good average of 52.50, and strike rate of 142.44, which helped Sunrisers Hyderabad all the way to the final but if you watch at the other seasons, his performance in the IPL has not been good.

Williamson’s fitness has been a concern. He didn't feature in a single T20 international in 2023 and only played two matches in the T20 World Cup cycle between 2022 and 2024.

The irony of Williamson's current situation is that he had previously declined a New Zealand central contract for the 2024/25 season, and now he's playing for Durban's Super Giants in SA20. On his first approach in SA20, he did very well, hitting a half century with good strike rate.

When he was noting this earlier, he mentioned, "There are a number of exciting competitions and SA20 looks really appealing. Unfortunately, it meant turning down a central contract, but my priority is still playing for New Zealand. So, even though he wants to play all over, he's focused on representing New Zealand".

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