It's Time To Think Bigger With Kane Williamson
Us kiwis love to talk things down and if we're not down playing something, we're chopping that tall poppy down. While no one has really done either of these with Kane Williamson, it's not in our nature to proclaim someones greatness which is why talk of Williamson always involves 'best kiwi batsman since...' or 'he's the best kiwi batsman ever'. Stop that, Williamson is beyond Aotearoa, he's soaring towards different heights.
Williamson has entered his Test cricket career at the perfect time, some of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game have long held the throne, they are now nearing the end of their careers if they haven't ended already. Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Shiv Chanderpaul. Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting Younis Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen are batsmen who have defined my Test cricket viewing experience. What do those players have in common? They're all over 30 years old, the time has come for the new era, the new school to slide on into the conversation.
Who are the guys who make up the new breed? Williamson is joined by Steven Smith, Joe Root and Virat Kohli at the moment as the best of the next with guys like Darren Bravo also capable of that status Ahmed Shehzad.
So how does Williamson compare to this group of the world's best? Only Virat Kohli has as many centuries as Williamson, they share 10 biggun's while Williamson's 15 half centuries is the most of Kohli, Smith and Root.
Interestingly, Williamson has played Test's in 10 different countries. Smith and Root have only played in five countries each while Kohli has played in six. The only countries Williamson averages less than 36.22 in are Australia and South Africa which is fairly impressive given how much Test cricket he's played and that those tours came early on in his career.
Williamson also has the most Test runs with 3,193. Again, Kohli sits in second with 2,547 runs while Williamson also owns the highest score of this quartet with 242 not out.
A portion of this can be put down to the fact that Williamson has played a fair bit more Test cricket than the other three. He has 40 Test's and 73 innings to his name while Smith has 26 Test's and 50 innings, Root 26 Test's and 47 innings and Kohli has 33 Test's and 59 innings. So in theory, Williamson should be leading the pack and his average reflects the greater number of innings he's batted in as only Kohli has a lower average than Williamson's 46.95. Smith averages 52.36 while Root averages 56.80, which evens the pack out a bit more.
The thing here though is that Williamson is only 24 years old and has played the most Test cricket of this quartet. He's not the youngest, Root's a bit younger but the volume of Test cricket for Williamson is hard to ignore and it's something that you can't use a statistic to really gauge it's importance. Williamson has the benefit of experiencing the ups and downs of the game at a very young age and he's also had plenty of time to really figure out what works for him. The fact that he's kept his production with the willow very high, whilst coming into Test cricket at a young age should serve as a sign of what he's capable of.
It will be interesting to see how the numbers pan out over the next few years. My opinion is that Williamson will benefit greatly from having played in every Test playing nation except for Pakistan already in his career. He's experienced the low and slow decks of Asia, he's played in Australia and South Africa and failed, he's pretty much experienced all that Test cricket can offer. That will help him now as he the premier batsman for the Black Caps and will be relied on to score runs wherever he goes, which should see his numbers, his average especially increase.
Kane Williamson has the potential to be the best batsmen of our generation in the whole wide world, it's possible. He's got some fierce competition in Smith, Root and Kohli plus any other youngster who emerges over the next few years, but at the very least, Williamson is in that group. Test cricket is now on the hunt for batsmen to take over from the old guard and Williamson needs to be thought of in that worldly conversation, not just in terms of our wee nation.