Fitness Or Form? 3 Reasons Why Kane Williamson Went Unsold In IPL 2025 Auction

Aashay Chopade

Kane Williamson during his SRH days (Source:@cricbuzz/X.com)Kane Williamson during his SRH days (Source:@cricbuzz/X.com)

Kane Williamson is one of the finest batters of the current generation and his record across formats over the years has been a one to behold. He is New Zealand's best and is an astute leader as well. He has led SRH in IPL as well and was one of the pillars of their batting line-up for quite a few years. He then went to GT in the last cycle, but now in the 2025 mega auction, he went unsold, and for many it was a big surprise as the Kiwi's stature in world cricket is second to none.

However, there are few reason that played a role in Kane Williamson going unsold, and so let's look at them in detail now.

Dwindling T20 Record Of The Kiwi Star

Kane Williamson has overall played 79 matched and has scored 2128 runs with an average of 35.47 and a strike-rate of 125.62. He has 18 fifties as well, so the record is quite good. However, his numbers have dwindled in the recent times, and since the 2022 season, he has scored just 243 runs in 16 matches while his strike rate has also been pretty low.

His numbers in T20Is have also not been in good and 18 was his highest score in the recently held T20 World Cup 2024. So, Kane Williamson has clearly struggled in the format and with age also not on his side, IPL teams decided to look beyond him.

Change In Approach Of T20 Cricket

Kane Williamson has always played an anchor role in T20 cricket and is not an out-an-out power-hitter. He relies more on building his innings and finding gaps and his overall T20 strike-rate is 122.58. So, he is a reliable batter, but with the T20 cricket changing and team relying on more firepower, batters like Kane Williamson have lost a bit of importance. In IPL, the Impact Player rule has made run-scoring at a quicker rate even more important, so with Kane Williamson has fallen down in the pecking order due to his low strike-rate.

Fitness Issues Haunting Progress

Fitness has also been a big issues for Kane Williamson in the last few years. He has got injured quite regularly and as a result, he could play only one game in the 2023 season. In the 2024 season too, he played just two matches for GT and could only play World Cup 2023, after missing some initial games. He did not play a single T20I game for New Zealand in 2023, and in the whole cycle between the 2022 and 2024 T20 World Cup, he played just two matches. Kane Williamson has also missed matches in all formats, and it also played a big role in Williamson going unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction.