Kane Williamson’s cool and composed nature is not just a key reason for New Zealand’s success in recent times, but that quality also makes him a top captain in contemporary cricket.

So believes former England skipper David Gower, who, like several other pundits, rates Williamson “right up there” as the best captain currently in the game.

But, at the same time, Gower points out the severe scrutiny that India’s Virat Kohli faces both in and outside his country, which is not the case with other captains.

During an interaction with The Telegraph, Gower, one of the batting greats during his time and also among the few England captains to have led their team to a Test series win in India (in 1984-85), said: “Virat is also up there in the sense that the Indian cricket team captain’s role is not just flipping a coin, making a few runs and trying to bail his side out. It’s a huge political job.

“It comes with immense responsibilities and it has got a billion people watching. And that’s just at home. He has also got another billion around the world watching.

“So it’s a high pressure job, which he seems to enjoy. I think that’s a really good sign about a captain. If you come across as relishing the responsibility and getting more out of it than just being captain of the team, I think it then points to a certain inherent character, which is really good.”

Batting-wise, Kohli hasn’t had many problems in white-ball cricket, except that of late he has not converted the fifties into big ones, especially in ODIs. But in the longest format, since the century in India’s first-ever pink-ball Test back in November 2019 — incidentally his last international hundred — Kohli has aggregated only 288 runs in his next 12 innings.

So is something wrong with his reflexes? Or is it just a passing phase in his career?

“I would doubt if his reflexes have been affected, because one of the things well-publicised about him is he’s extremely fit. He works very hard at his game, so he’s less likely to be affected by any minimal slowing reflexes,” Gower pointed out.

“Secondly, everyone who has ever played the game for any length of time knows that there’s inevitably a readjustment needed later on. I know we’re talking about milliseconds and micro-fractions, but experience, ability, competence and all the rest of the factors that make people as good as they are allow them to overcome these hurdles.

“The great names have always been capable of making those readjustments and scoring more runs towards the end of a long career. So I wouldn’t worry about Virat’s reflexes or his hunger for the game.

“I would most likely put it down to one of those sequences that happens to everyone,” Gower said.

England & IPL

Gower does acknowledge the IPL’s significance in the growth of the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Sam Curran. “Alongside the financial riches, the IPL also offers an extraordinary experience and I think it took a while for the ECB to accept that the IPL offered their players education, valuable experience and could actually help them develop as cricketers, which it has done,” he said.

“People like Buttler have come through to prominence because of the IPL and their experiences there.”

But all said and done, representing one’s country should be the priority for all players, Gower quickly added, in the context of some England players likely to miss the first Test versus New Zealand beginning June 10 if their respective IPL teams go the distance.

“This comes down to the subject of loyalty. It asks if you’re going to be more loyal to your international team or to a franchise which might or might not throw you out next year. Obviously if you’re playing well, they aren’t going to do that. But yeah, it’s an interesting scenario.

“Now when you narrow it down a bit, I think a certain sort of sense of honour and loyalty to one’s country would be appreciated,” Gower said.