MARTYN Moxon says New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has found the last month with Yorkshire tough going having had such a hectic recent schedule.

Williamson has been left out of the county’s ongoing Specsavers Championship match against Surrey at the Oval due to “mental fatigue”, with the hosts reaching 95-2 from 33 overs on a rain-affected day one yesterday.

He will play in Friday’s T20 Blast game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge before linking up with his country for their Test tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Williamson, 25, arrived at Yorkshire ahead of a Blast game against Birmingham on June 10. His last commitment in the Indian Premier League with Sunrisers Hyderabad was on May 29.

In between, he flew back to New Zealand for the first time since early March.

He has since played five Blast, three one-day and two Championship matches for Yorkshire.

“It’s all come from Kane getting over here, playing some cricket and finding it really, really hard given the workload he’s had,” said Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket.

“He hasn’t had that much time off between the IPL and coming here.

“He’s disappointed and a bit frustrated, and so are we. But, at the end of the day, we have a duty of care to look after him.

“It was a discussion we had between us all. It was an open and honest discussion as to how he’s feeling at this moment in time.

“I’ve not spoken to anyone from New Zealand Cricket.

“I think he showed on Sunday (T20 at Derby when he scored 65) that as far as one-day matches, he’s very happy to play in those.

“But we just a thought a four-day game was not the right thing to do.

“It’s not just the batting, it’s the time fielding as well.

“It’s counter-productive if you can’t quite produce your best, and it was the sensible decision for all parties.”

Williamson will be replaced as Yorkshire’s overseas player this weekend by Travis Head, who arrives from Australia at midday today.

Yorkshire made an impressive start with two early wickets yesterday as Surrey, who elected to bat, slipped to 36-2 inside 24 overs.

The visitors stifled the scoring rate on a pitch offering little assistance to their bowlers, with David Willey and Steve Patterson striking.

Willey had Rory Burns lbw playing to leg in the eighth over before Patterson had Dominic Sibley brilliantly caught behind one-handed by a diving Andrew Hodd down leg.

Only 27 runs came in the first 20 overs for a Surrey side who did manage to up the run-rate in the latter stages of the morning through Aaron Finch.

A two-time Championship winner with Yorkshire, the Australian is on a short-term overseas contract with Surrey as a replacement for Kumar Sangakkara, currently playing in the Caribbean Premier League.

Finch hit five fours in his first 20 balls, including two down the ground off Patterson - one straight and the other to long-on - on the way to 34 not out.

He shared a 59-run stand inside 9.5 overs with Zafar Ansari, who is unbeaten on 35.

Ansari hit two of three fours in the first and only over after lunch, bowled by Azeem Rafiq, before play was called off at 5pm.