ENG vs NZ | Kane Williamson opens up about Ajaz Patel’s exclusion from 3rd Test

The third and final Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley saw Jack Leach notch up his career-best match figures of 10 for 166. The left-arm spinner picked up five wickets in both New Zealand innings to peg the visiting side, who suffered a 0-3 whitewash against England.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson opted not to play Ajaz Patel, which in hindsight cost them the match as they banked on their fast bowling-trio of Trent Boult, Neil Wagner, and Tim Southee to pick up wickets.

As the Test progressed, they looked one bowler short, especially a spinner.

According to Stuff.co.nz, Williamson said that Patel was excluded after looking at the track record at Leeds.

He said: "Obviously, as we saw the surface deteriorate as much as it did, even after a couple of days, the spin became as threatening, if not more.

It was one of those things. The decision that we made and for the balance of the side, but obviously in hindsight and Ajaz is obviously our number one spinner, you do look at that surface, and you look at it on day five, and you do see the value of that."

Patel was picked for the first Test at the Lord's, where he bowled only two overs.

Reflecting on the 0-3 loss, Williamson said New Zealand had their moments across all Tests but could not make the most of them.

"For us, it's frustrating that we haven't quite had some of the results go our way, but we do want to keep putting our focus and energy into the cricket and the quality of the cricket and still understand we're not that far away.

"If we look at each match closely, there were moments and large moments throughout it where we were either right in the match or even ahead of the game, but to not perhaps win those moments and take the game further into stronger winning positions is something we definitely want to be doing and something we were doing really well a year ago."