THE ARTIST

Straight Elbow, Eyes upfront, sensational timing and mesmerizing placement that's Kane Williamson for you, an artist to the core and one of the prominent figure among famous fab four circa. Here we analyze the career of the Kiwi Captain and the heights he can achieve in future

On New Zealand’s tour of India in late 2010, when a 20 year old Kiwi batsman  from Northern Districts was handed the Test cap, most of the experts were eagerly waiting to see how the youngster highly rated in New Zealand Cricket circles would fare against Indian spinners on a tough Motera pitch which was famous for turning sharply. The challenge became even tougher when the visitors stumbling at 137-4 in reply of India’s massive 487. At the moment on the crease were Jesse Ryder and 20-year-old Kane Williamson, playing his first test match.Both the players took the Indian bowlers while Ryder was attacking as ever,Kane was very watchful playing with the straight bat,leaving balls and stroking cover drives as perfect as it can be, his straight drives were as heart robbing as Tendulkar’s. The young guns took New Zealand to safety while Ryder amassed 103 of 205 balls, Williamson was an example of patience, concentration and temperament in his innings of 131 and showed New Zealand has got something special in him.

First Test Hundred

27 years back in August of 1990, Brett Williamson was nervously walking out of Operation theater not because he was about to become dad for the fourth time but there were complications in his wife Sandra Williamson’s pregnancy. Sandra gave birth to twins Kane and Logan Williamson.Brett’s family has excellent atmosphere of Sports,while daughters went on to play age group Volleyball,elder son Kane Williamson tried his hand in Cricket.Moreover the location of the family,middle-class suburb in the beachside city of Tauranga, a two-and-a-half-hour drive south-east of Auckland. The whether use to be beautiful and the space plenty in bonus the Pillas Point a famous and only school having their own cricket programmes without being attached to a club.Moreover the street had some fairly good sporting families. Trent Boult use to live near by then Bracewell family ( Doug Bracewell ) and Braid family ( All Blacks) were some of the popular names. All this played crucial role in making Kane Williamson the cricketer he is today. At the age of 17 he played his first class match in 2007 and within space of only three years he was playing his First Test against some of the best spinners in their own den in the conditions tailer made for them and that was the start of the journey of one of the finest cricketer from New Zealand.

At the age of 17 in December 2007 vs Bangladesh 

Domestic Cricket in 2009

In March 2012, He showed glimpse of his talent, aged only 21 years he made a brilliant century against one of the most fearsome pace attack consisting of Dale Steyn,Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel at Basin Reserve,New Zealand lost the series 1-0 but the reputation of Williamson increased by the end . Williamson is not only tough with bat but in his initial years also showed he is menatlly as tough. After his century against South Africa he made only 173 runs in 10 innings. However he scored when New Zealand needed it most. While trailing by 0-1 in test series in Sri Lanka he along with his captain Ross Taylor plundered Sri Lankan attack , a brilliant hundred by Williamson (135) supported by another hundred from Taylor ensured that New Zealand won in Sri Lanka after 15 years . During next few months he scored runs in subcontinent as well as in home conditions.His century against India at Auckland was pure class.

 

A Brave Century vs South Africa in 2012

It was however his sublime performance on the tour of West Indies in 2014 that led to the talk of club of fab four . He scored 413 runs at an average 82.60 with two high class hundreds which resulted in a historic series win by 2-1 for New Zealand. By now he was being hailed as one of the best batsmen of his generation. The Comparison with Smith,Root and Kohli started from hereon.Against Pakistan at Sharjah only few months later he again showed why he is one of the best batsmen to have ever played in Asia against some quality spinner. His 192 was determental to his mental toughness and penchant for playing long innings. His sublime footwork, carrasing cover drives and a perfect staright drive was better than even majority of the famous subcontinental players.

An year later his three hundreds in England and Australia once again proved that he was man for all conditions. After making 132 at Lords in swinging conditions,he made back to back hundred at Brisbane and Perth which was crucial in New Zealand giving some tough moments to Australia in an away series. In 2016 he took over as captain of New Zealand a job he was hailed to be perfect person and withing an year he had hit 4 hundreds , two of them coming against quality attack of South Africa.

In December last year New Zealand registered a historic 2-1 win against Pakistan in UAE. This was their first away series against Pakistan in 49 years , It was Williamson who played pivotal role in negating the threat of Yasir Shah making a staggering 386 runs at 77.20. His hundred in final test could be termed as one of his finest innings till date. Along with young Henry Nicholls,Williamson pulled New Zealand out of trouble and put them on course of historic win in a test where they were far behind in first three days.

His Hundred in 3rd Test vs Pakistan in Dec 2018 helped NZ clinch historic series

Williamson is only 28 and he had been hailed as the finest batsman ever produced by New Zealand even better than Martin Crowe. Against Bangaldesh he is playing his 71^st Test and have scored 6065 runs at a staggering average of 53.20 . He became the first Kiwi to score 20 Test centuries a figure which have not been touched even by some of the great names from the country. Not only in tests he is a formidable figure in limited over games as well, scoring 5554 runs at 45.90 in 139 ODIs’ with 11 hundreds. With age on his side if its presumed that he will play till 36 which means another 8 years and if he keeps himself fit then inspite of New Zealand playing less Tests he may end up with 140 tests and somewhere around 12000 runs along with 35-40 hundreds a figure which might be never touched in New Zealand’s cricket history again. In ODIs’ as well it is exepcted he will play atleast till 2023 WC which means he might end up with some where around 250 matches and 10,000 runs along with 20-22 hundreds.

What will happen in future it is still unknown but one thing is for sure New Zealand Captain would have written his name in golden letters not only in history of New Zealand cricket but on the pages of International Cricket by the time he decides to call it a day.