Kane Williamson will be willing to take more risks against Kuldeep Yadav: Sunil Gavaskar ahead of IND vs NZ 2023 World Cup semifinal

Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar believes New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson will have no major issues while facing Kuldeep Yadav in their highly-anticipated clash in the 2023 World Cup semifinal in Mumbai on Wednesday (November 15).

Williamson has just recovered from a thumb injury and had missed the majority of the group-stage action. However, Gavaskar feels the veteran batter has enough experience to deal with Kuldeep's threat.

Speaking on Star Sports, here's what Sunil Gavaskar had to say about Kane Williamson facing Kuldeep Yadav:

"If needed, you don’t want to hit him (Kuldeep) for boundaries; just work it away for six singles if that is required. When the boundary ball comes along, he (Williamson) will hit the boundary ball, so we’ve seen his willingness to take more risks.

"We haven’t seen that side of Kane Williamson maybe in 2019, but here, we have seen him take the aerial route. He got out on a shot for a 100 the other day; he got out on 95, but that’s because he had taken the aerial route and he will probably look to do that against Kuldeep Yadav as well.”

Former Australian captain Aaron Finch, on the other hand, spoke about another Kiwi batter Daryl Mitchell. He feels the all-rounder can take the game away from India if not dismissed early and told Star Sports:

“Yeah, you’ve to get him (Mitchell) early. That’s what India has been good at throughout this tournament, getting powerplay wickets and exposing middle orders against the brand-new ball still. If Mitchell is able to bat till the 20th over, then he is able to play on his terms.”

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Aaron Finch on India's spearhead Jasprit Bumrah

Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra are likely to open the innings for New Zealand. With both being left-handers, Aaron Finch feels the hosts will bank on Jasprit Bumrah to trouble with his inswingers to the southpaws.

On this, he stated:

“Yeah, of all the quick out there, and Bumrah in particular, his ability to swing it back into the left-hander is so crucial because then you can’t just worry about the ball going across and you might get a little bit of width now and then.

"It doesn’t look like poetry when he's running up to the crease, but once he releases the ball, the seam position and angle to swing it back down the line against the left-hander is just poetry; it’s unbelievable.”

India will be wary of the threat that New Zealand poses and will look to erase the scars of the semifinal defeat to the same opposition four years ago.