IPL 2022 | 'We back him; he's a world-class player' - Tom Moody on Kane Williamson

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Tom Moody has backed Kane Williamson over the lack of runs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.

Kane Williamson is the only batter with a strike rate of less than 100 among all batters who have faced at least 150 deliveries in IPL 2022. After 11 innings, he's averaging below 20, which is a concern for the Hyderabad based franchise.

It is worth thinking about how much of a concern is Williamson's form? What is moving him down the order one potential fix? However, the Sunrisers' coach, Tom Moody, doesn't think it is and believes there is much time left in the season for Williamson to make an impact.

"We've thought about that," coach Moody said upon being asked if Rahul Tripathi, and not Williamson, should open the innings on current form. 

"But we felt that Tripathi-[Aiden] Markram-[Nicholas] Pooran at 3-4-5 have been one of the strengths of our batting. To be fair to Kane, he didn't even face a ball today, so it'll be pretty hard to judge his form on today's outing. We back him; he's a world-class player; there's no question of that. He'll have his moment to stamp his authority on the tournament," Moody added.

Not only is Williamson facing questions over his form, Umran Malik has been in the spotlight all season for his bristling pace and has taken wickets in bursts, but in his last three innings, he has been a huge disappointment, conceding a combined 125 runs in 10 wicketless overs.

Moody opted for more patience with Malik as he adapted to the vast volume of top-flight cricket he's played lately. Between the previous IPL season and this one, he has featured in just one first-class game, three List-A matches and seven T20s.

"It's a real learning experience for him. You have to look at the volume of cricket he has played, which is very minimal. This run of games in a row for him is something he's not used to. He is not used to playing this regular cricket, but the high intensity of cricket the IPL is. 

He is on a very steep learning curve. There's no question that he hasn't quite got it right in the last couple of outings. We're doing our best to support him and guide him to learn from these experiences," Moody said.

This Sunday's loss, which puts Sunrisers in a tight position in regards to the race for a playoffs spot goes, has made Moody reflect that they have conceded 20-25 more runs than they should have, including two dropped catches - one early in the innings and another one at the end - didn't help either.