Taking Stock Of Kane Williamson's Aotearoa Excellence
As Kane Williamson enjoys a paid holiday in India, the forces of Aotearoa appear to be aligning for another wave of Williamson excellence. Any niggly Blackcaps Test issues from last summer can be traced back to Williamson or the absence of Williamson as he battled injury and after grinding their way to a drawn Test in India, Aotearoa then lost the second Test without Williamson. That was followed by losses to Bangladesh and South Africa on fertile Aotearoa soil, again without Williamson.
Aotearoa cricket oozes depth and Blackcaps success across all three formats stems from that depth. This depth ensures that 36-year-old Neil Wagner only has to play seven games of (domestic and international) cricket since the World Test Championship final and one of Aotearoa's best seamers ever can manage his workload around what is most important. This depth ensures wicket-keepers and spinners are spread across all formats, while the likes of Williamson, Trent Boult and Tim Southee can pick their spots between formats/series.
Williamson, Boult and Southee are the busiest kiwi cricketers. While lovely common sense is deployed in managing their workloads, the weight of Williamson's mahi provides a intriguing wrinkle to his absence. Williamson's injury lay off saw him miss the summer of kiwi cricket and given what Williamson had done in the years prior, as well as what is to come, that was a rather timely absence.
In the first WTC cycle, Aotearoa was the only nation to play in all three major finals. First was the ODI World Cup final in 2019, followed by WTC success and then the T20 World Cup final last year. No other nation did that and that's why Aotearoa is the best sporting nation in the world. As the best leaders tend to do, Williamson led from the front in all three competitions.
2019 ODI World Cup
9inns, 578 runs @ 82.57avg (player of the tournament).
Final: 30 (56sr).
World Test Championship (2019-23)
16inns, 918 runs @ 61.20avg.
Final: 49 (28sr), 52* (58sr).
2021 T20 World Cup
7inns, 216 runs @ 43.20avg.
Final: 85 (177sr).
Williamson led Aotearoa for runs in all three events. Aotearoa wiggled through tournament play in the ODI and T20 World Cups without much fuss, adapting to conditions and opponents better than other nations. Williamson managed his team as best as any other leader in cricket and also scored the most runs. This isn't just legendary mahi for Aotearoa, no other cricketers in the world are leading their teams across all three formats like Williamson.
Most nations split their captaincy across formats while the likes of Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Joe Root are no longer captains of their respective nations. As Williamson's workload is managed, Aotearoa leans on Tim Southee and Tom Latham for their leadership as another nod to Aotearoa's depth. If Williamson is the Blackcaps mafia don, lads like Southee and Latham are consigliere who fall under Williamson's leadership and run things in alignment with Williamson.
Aotearoa's Blackcaps are now sparking up their winter tour to England as they look to roll England once again and get their WTC campaign back on track. That will be followed by another T20 World Cup later this year and then an ODI World Cup next year. While doom and gloom merchants stressed about last summer's Test losses, Bay of Plenty surf vibes probably rejuvenated Williamson for a busy period.
The trend of Williamson flowing with the schedule already exists. Williamson played 12 T20I games in 2018 followed by three, then five across the next two years before ramping up to 12 last year. In 2015 Williamson played 27 ODI games featuring a World Cup and the next three years saw his number of games decrease (18, 14, 11) before ramping up again for the 2019 World Cup year (20 games).
While we all want more Test cricket, there are benefits of less Test cricket in Aotearoa summers.. England are thirsty for Test cricket and have played the most Tests in this WTC cycle so far, with their 13 Tests featuring a lone victory. England's thirst is not aligned with winning and they also played the most games in the previous WTC cycle (21). India played 17 games in the previous cycle and have now played 12 games in this cycle, maintaining winning records in both campaigns; does any kiwi want to emulate Indian cricket though?
Aotearoa is among the best cricket nations in the world thanks to their lack of cricket. This is a tricky task because England and India are hungus for money, thus more cricket is required. Aotearoa plays enough cricket across the formats to generate revenue, but balances this out nicely with a sensible cap on games played. Only Bangladesh played fewer WTC games in the last cycle and Sri Lanka is the only nation to play less games in this cycle.
This naturally manages Williamson's Test workload, while Williamson flows with what is most important in the white ball formats. How does this impact Williamson's batting though? Well, the fact that Williamson led Aotearoa run-scorers in ODI and T20 World Cups as well as the WTC speaks for itself.
Williamson has a double-hundred in each of the three years prior to 2022, with two of his three highest averages for a calendar year coming in 2020 (83avg) and 2021 (65.83avg). Williamson's total number of runs decreases with fewer Tests played, but two of his best yearly averages are in recent years. 2019 was Williamson's second most productive year for ODI runs with his third highest average. Williamson hit three T20I 50+ scores across five games in 2020 for his best yearly average, while his 2021 saw a run-scoring dip absorbed by team success and a monster knock in the T20 World Cup final.
How does Williamson's captaincy impact those around him? Latham, Southee, Boult, Wagner and Henry Nicholl are all better under Williamson in Test cricket compared to the previous skipper Brendon McCullum.
Tom Latham
Captain McCullum: 44.50avg.
Captain Williamson: 46.41avg.
Tim Southee
Captain McCullum: 30.23avg.
Captain Williamson: 23.79avg.
Trent Boult
Captain McCullum: 29.15avg.
Captain Williamson: 26.42avg.
Neil Wagner
Captain McCullum: 31.30avg.
Captain Williamson: 23.04avg.
Henry Nicholls
Captain McCullum: 19avg.
Captain Williamson: 41.93avg.
Southee and Wagner are notably better under Williamson, while the other three are slightly better. This is all in alignment with Aotearoa moving from a plucky white ball outfit to a nation that makes finals in all three formats. Now Aotearoa moves forward through the three formats with Williamson fresh off a relaxing summer and hitting plenty of balls during his ramp up period in India.
Williamson also has his Northern Districts homies around him in India, as well as Blackcaps fitness guru Chris Donaldson. This Indian pit-stop serves Williamson and Aotearoa cricket nicely as the lads stack some cash, build their workloads up for crucial cricket and make the most of Indian resources. Williamson has already led Aotearoa to multi-format success as skipper and the leading batter, now everything appears to be building towards another funky phase of Blackcaps cricket under skipper Williamson.
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Peace and love.