New Zealand won the inaugural WTC title against Team India by 8 wickets.
Thus, the former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum lauded current skipper Kane Williamson for reaching the pinnacle of Test cricket as well as the New Zealand team for being ‘humble and hardworking’ and perfectly reflecting the image of their captain.
“To me, the last few years is where New Zealand has really (risen) under Kane Williamson's leadership - that team is a real image of the skipper.”
“The culture of that side is so much of what is New Zealand - we're humble, hard-working, innovative when we need to be and represent our country with great pride and that's what those guys do. This New Zealand cricket team is the perfect fabric of what we want,” McCullum said as quoted by tvnz.co.nz.
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While a lot of experts gave credit to the former wicketkeeper-batsman for revival of New Zealand side since their defeat in South Africa back in 2013, McCullum doesn’t believe that he single-handedly brought the change.
“I didn't start it, everyone reflects back to 2013 as a bit of a ground zero moment for us; it was an important moment but you've got to go back generations. For generations, we've been trying different formulas and different fabrics and we've always been searching and I think in 2013, our search was pretty brutal,” the 39-year-old said.
“They've been knocking on the door of the ultimate success for a while now and to continue to keep doing it and keep believing in what they're about as a cricket team and to be repaid now with the ultimate success of a World Test Championship is just so significant,” he added.
(With tvnz.co.nz Inputs)