3 reasons why Kane Williamson can finish as one of the best Test batsmen of his generation
Williamson is considered a modern-day great. But how good is he? Where does he stand with other contemporary greats like Virat Kohli, Root and Smith? Is it time to give Kane his due?
Kane Williamson has been the silent assassin for New Zealand. Being a great batsman and having good leadership skills in his disposal, he makes a strong case of himself within the 'fab four'. He has been continuously scoring a truckload of runs for his team in difficult conditions and has taken New Zealand home on various occasions. But sometimes we tend to forget how good a batsman he is.
Let's break down the three reasons why Kane can finish as one of the best Test batsmen of his generation.
#3 Batting at the tough number 3 spot and playing less cricket compared to his counterparts
Williamson, the least fancied of the lot (probably because he is from New Zealand and not from the big three cricket-playing nations), is playing at the same league like his contemporaries.
Amongst this generation of Test batsmen who are billed to be future greats, four name stands out: Williamson, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Joe Root. Williamson is certainly at the top of this pack and, in all probability, will finish at the top too. This despite being a number 3 batsman, which is historically a much more difficult batting position than number 4 (in terms of average runs scored per dismissal), where interestingly all the other three mentioned above bat too.
Kane Williamson has played 103 innings in the number 3 spot and has scored a total of 5130 runs at a stellar average of 55.16 including 17 hundreds. While other batsmen such as Virat Kohli and Root has considerably struggled to make an impact at the number 3 position. Kohli's numbers are below-par there, scoring just 97 runs in six Test innings at an average of 19.40.
Also, we must keep in mind that New Zealand never get to play a four or five-match Test series unlike the big three- India, Australia and England. They mostly get two or three Tests in a series at home and away. This puts Williamson at a disadvantage when compared to the others.
Unlike them, he does not get a second chance or enough opportunities to make a comeback in a series. He hardly gets time to acclimatize to the conditions and had to be at his best from the word go. Thus, for Williamson to score this many runs is truly incredible.