Captaincy to Kane Williamson a precautionary measure: Mike Hesson
Clarifying the decision to give Kane Williamson his captaincy debut in the second Twenty20 international against West Indies, New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has said that it was a precautionary move in case if any untoward incident happens closer towards the 2015 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
"Look, it's something that, if we get to the World Cup and we have an incident, we need to make sure Kane's up to speed.
"Today was an opportunity for us, in a slightly lesser pressure situation, to give him that opportunity and we still put a decent side out on the park instead of playing without Brendon. It's a good experience for him. It's one of those areas that we need to ensure we've got covered come World Cup time," said the coach, who is trying all the possible alternatives.
It can be noted that they have tried out a new opener in James Neesham, who is actually a finisher, for the two-match Twenty-20 series, a move that didn’t come off quite well with him getting dismissed in single digits on both the occasions.
Reflecting on the 39-run loss to end the series level-pegging with 1 each, Hesson said : "We weren't sharp with the ball in the middle overs. I don't think we assessed the conditions quite as well as we could have, whereas yesterday we were outstanding in that area.
“With the bat, it's key for one of our top order to go on and make a big score. The fact that the wicket got slower and turned and bounced a bit, we needed a guy who was set. That we kept losing wickets throughout made it more difficult for us.
"You don't want to finish on a loss, but overall, it's been a great tour for us. We came over here a couple of years ago and got turned over. The fact that we won a Test series away from home was a big achievement for us and to be fair, disappointed with today but 1-1 in a T20 series, we certainly showed some good skills and players stood up, so overall really pleased.”