Kane Williamson reacts to Ross Taylor's 'Wagner was forced to retire' suspicion: 'Know more than me?'
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Mar 06, 2024 04:08 PM IST
Williamson has completely refuted Taylor’s claims regarding unrest in the New Zealand team as the latter also called Wagner’s retirement a forced one.
Premier New Zealand batter Kane Williamson has reacted to Ross Taylor‘s claim of unrest in the Kiwi camp amidst Neil Wagner‘s international retirement. Ahead of the Test series against Australia, Wagner announced the decision in the press conference despite being named in the squad. His decision caught some eyeballs as Taylor even called it a forced retirement indicating unrest in the New Zealand camp.
“I think it all makes sense a little bit now. There’s no sugarcoating it: I think it’s a forced retirement. If you listen to Wagner’s press conference, he was retiring, but it was after this last Test match [against Australia]. So he did make himself available,” Taylor told ESPN.
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Wagner‘s on-field antics in the Test series against South Africa came under the scanners as he celebrated the wicket of Zubayr Hamza with a finger-on-the-mouth ‘shush’ celebration. He was also seen showing his middle finger in the team huddle when they were celebrating another wicket, however, it’s unclear who was it directed towards.
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Meanwhile, Williamson has completely refuted Taylor‘s claims and said Wagner had a fantastic week with the team during the first Test.
“I don’t think anybody is forced to retire. I think last week, he had a fantastic week and it was reflecting on what was an incredible career,” Williamson said in the press conference ahead of 2nd Test.
The former New Zealand Test captain also heaped praise on Wagner and said he gave his heart and soul to the team with his efforts on the field.
“We had some amazing moments in the dressing room. It didn’t go perfectly. Obviously, an on-field performance would have helped but it was so much more than that. He’s just done such incredible things for this team. And we’ve seen the skill that he has and the numbers that everybody sees but the heart and soul and effort that he’s brought to the side and largely led through that for so long has been incredible. It was quite a special week for that reason and I think he had a really amazing time sharing that with the side.”
Meanwhile, Williamson also shed light on Wagner’s finger-on-mouth gesture towards skipper Tim Southee and said it was part of the banter between the two from the dressing room. The Kiwi batter said that the gesture was taken out of context and players in the team found it humorous.
“Those guys are great mates and have been and will continue to be,” Williamson said. “That was banter in the dressing room with Waggy and his fielding so he ended up putting him down at fine leg. So to get a catch was quite amusing. So Waggy took his opportunity. I think he thinks that obviously out of context [and] it doesn’t look great, but it was a little bit humorous at the time and all the players understood the context,” he added.
Williamson also reacted to Taylor’s claim of some unrest in the New Zealand camp as the star batter said that the former skipper might know more than him about the team environment.
“Yeah, quite good,” Williamson said. “Something that we’re always trying to improve and evolve as a team. And it’s something we’ve tried to do for years. You always have different transitions and players come and go, support staff come and go. [Taylor] might know more than me, I’m not sure. But I see guys that are giving everything, trying to get better as a team, trying to move the team forward and that’s really a focus for us,” he said.
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