Aotearoa vs West Indies: Super Lame Boring Stink Kane Williamson Stuff
"Umm, aw yeah, look, uh firstly it's for the team ... haha it always is ya know".
There is nothing better than being a kiwi, knowing that another kiwi is part of a long list of world-class sports folk and that kiwi is full of all the good vibes that make us kiwis, kiwis. Whether it's Steven Adams representing Aotearoa in the NBA, Lydia Ko rolling through her ups and downs in true kiwi styles or any one of the blokes and ladies from Aotearoa playing football around the world; Aotearoa's sporting excellence is rooted in the kiwi vibe.
So, when Kane Williamson grooved his way to another century and another double century in Hamilton vs West Indies, he obviously did so with standard kiwi vibes. Check around the cricketing world and folks from other nations celebrate Williamson's humility, his mellow nature and a consistent, un-wavering team first approach. For us kiwis, Kane's just the bro from down the road and another kiwi representing Aotearoa to the max.
When reflecting on the back foot drives that I reckon are a bit more seducing that when Williamson cracks a cover drive - right under his eyes so the ball pings back into the turf - there are various layers to Williamson's greatness to explore. Right now, top of my mind is how Williamson has flowed through 2020 and if you were getting giddy about what Williamson has done in the glorious whites of Test cricket to start this summer, kick back and enjoy the all-round wizardry of Williamson.
Where Williamson ranks among Aotearoa's best batsmen isn't as funky to me at this moment considering we know where Williamson will end up and kaumatua Ross Taylor won't be too far behind. I'm a wee bit more intrigued in some context around Williamson, specifically this year and the weirdest place to start is highlighting that Williamson has played two ODIs since the World Cup final.
Williamson played one ODI vs India in February, then that first ODI vs Australia before the shenanigans took over. Scores of 22 and 19 for Williamson, neither of which is funky and so let's stretch it back a bit further to the World Cup where Williamson finished fourth in total runs scored; Williamson and Taylor (19th) were the only kiwis in the group of 24 batsmen who scored 300+ runs.
Williamson finished with 578 runs @ 82.57avg/74.96sr. That strike-rate was the lowest of those 24 batsmen who scored 300+ runs, while Taylor, Imam Ul-Haq (Pakistan) and KL Rahul (India) were the only other batsmen of this group who had strike-rates below 80. Given what we know about Williamson in the Test arena and that Williamson's ODI career strike-rate is 81.75, one could view Williamson as an traditional batsmen doing well in the modern cricket craziness.
This is where things get juicy as 2020 has seen Williamson perform excessively well in T20 cricket. Able to pick and choose his spots, Williamson only played three of the five T20I games vs India earlier this year and still finished fourth in total runs via scores of 51, 14 and 95. KL Rahul, Colin Munro and Taylor all scored more runs than Williamson while playing all five games, plus Williamson had a strike-rate of 170.21 in this series which was the highest of the nine batsmen who scored 100 runs.
In that series, playing only three games, Williamson hit 10 sixes and that was equal to Rahul who finished as the leading run-scorer. No other batsman from either team hit more sixes than Williamson and the kiwi skipper then grabbed a cheeky 89 to go with scores of 3 and 5 in the Test series vs India.
Then came the Indian Premier League, where Williamson and Trent Boult were among the best batsmen and bowlers respectively. Williamson played 12 games with 317 runs @ 45.28avg/133.75sr, which in the context of Williamson's IPL career was his second best campaign as 2018 was the only year since Williamson's first tournament in 2015 with a higher average than 2020 and more than Williamson's three 50+ scores.
In 2018, Williamson cracked 735 runs @ 52.50avg/142.44sr with eight 50+ scores. Williamson has an overall IPL average of 39.48 and that has Williamson ranked 12th all time for IPL batting averages, which gets slightly more impressive considering Williamson is 49th all time for IPL runs and Brendon McCullum is the only kiwi with more IPL runs than Williamson.
A different way to slice this is that Williamson is one of three batsmen who are in the top-50 for IPL runs having played less than 60 games (everyone in the top-20 has played 100+ games). The only batsmen in the top-50 with less than 60 games are England's Jos Buttler and none other than Michael Hussey.
Williamson has low key played six consecutive years of IPL cricket and I'm always intrigued by the number of games played as very few kiwis play more than five games given the overseas player selection rules. Williamson played two games in 2015, then more than six games in each of the next five years, playing 10+ games in 2018 and 2020.
For context, Boult has also played 10+ games in 2018 and 2020 - two windows where they were most available via scheduling. Boult took 25w @ 18.28avg/7.97rpo this year in the IPL and this whole Williamson vibe also applies to the multi-format slickness of Boult.
To this point in this yarn, we've had Williamson leading the Blackcaps to the World Cup final as one of the best batsmen but in grafting style which saw Williamson cover the opening duo who were tasked with setting the strike-rate and set up the sluggers in the middle order. Then, Williamson smacked boundaries in T20Is v India and had a solid Test summer apart from the Aussie nightmare (scores of 51, 4 and 104* vs England), then another strong IPL campaign.
We know Williamson's pure batting talent puts him alongside Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, let alone any other joker you want to throw up. Any idea that Williamson is a Test batsman, or that his Test skills don't translate to the fast-paced life of white ball cricket is strange. Williamson is in that Kohli/Smith class because of what he does in every format, consistently.
The scariest or greatest thing about all of this is like Taylor's resurgence in recent years, all signs point to Williamson gathering even more runs and it's highly likely that at some point in the next two years there will be another yarn like this typed up to highlight wrinkle of Williamson's nek level.
In 2019, Williamson averaged 59.25 in ODI cricket. That was the first year in which Williamson averaged 50+ since 2015, after averaging 50+ in three of his first six years. This summer is all about T20I cricket with the odd Test sprinkled in for giggles, so Williamson won't be able to rectify his 41 runs in 2 innings @ 20.50avg in 2020 ODI cricket. We do however know that 2019 was Williamson's best year of ODI cricket, in a World Cup year, since 2015.
Those three T20I games vs India make up Williamson's best year of T20I cricket in 2020 and that may or may not be added to depending on whether Williamson wants to play vs Pakistan. Williamson has averaged 20+ in every year of his T20I career, with a high mark in 2016 when he averaged 47.87. Package Williamson's entire 2020 T20 journey together (T20I and IPL) and we have a compelling case for Williamson being at his T20 best, maybe approaching a whole new realm of T20 batting.
Williamson is currently in a four year stretch of averaging 50+ in Test cricket and that is notable because Williamson started his career with four years averaging below 50. Williamson has hit a century in every calendar year since 2012 and 2011 is the only year since Williamson's debut in 2010 where Williamson didn't make a hundy. Williamson scored two 50+ scores in every year between 2011-2019 and he needs another decent knock to finish 2020 and continue that streak.
All of which aligns with Williamson being captain...
Test
Captain: 52inns, 58.47avg/58.96sr.
Not Captain: 89inns, 49.23avg/48.09sr.
ODI
Captain: 75inns, 49.56avg/79.22sr.
Not Captain: 69inns, 45.13avg/85.12sr.
T20I
Captain: 42inns, 32.71avg/125.68sr.
Not Captain: 16inns, 32.46avg/123.75sr.
This summer awkwardly presents an opportunity for Williamson to amplify his multi-format excellence. Williamson averages in the 44s for ODI cricket in Aotearoa and overseas, he led Aotearoa to within a smidge of a World Cup win and everything about Williamson's ODI work is rooted in greatness. If we can be patient, Williamson will again grace us with his presence in ODI cricket to continue to serve up ODI runs and take his career even further in that format.
For now though, there is an enticing opportunity for Williamson to partner T20I runs with Test runs and while no one believes Williamson sucks at T20 batting, in the world of switch hits and desperate ways to access boundaries, Williamson goes about T20 batting as only Williamson can. Williamson has nothing to prove in that regard, although things will be bonkers if Williamson is able switch between the two cricketing extremes with relative ease.
It seems unlikely for Williamson to any of the T20I games vs Pakistan as that's right when Williamson is expecting the birth of his child and that may impact his Test involvement. Regardless, there's a decent chance we'll see more Test funk from Williamson vs West Indies and Pakistan and all of this is tremendous as the five-game T20I series vs Australia is the perfect way for Williamson to finish his kiwi summer by dabbling in even more T20I runs.
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Peace and love.