3 Batting stars of tomorrow - Legends to be

2. Kane Williamson (New Zealand):

When New Zealand toured India in 2010 for a 3-match Test series, Williamson was set to make his Test debut and he debuted in some style. Trailing India’s 487 in the 1st innings, New Zealand lost their top 4 for 137 that is when Kane Williamson walked in. India were the number one Test team in the world at that time and a lot of sides found it difficult defying India a win at home. Williamson, only 20 years of age then, showed a lot of character and patience. Along with Jesse Ryder, Williamson took New Zealand to safety and almost to 1st innings lead. He scored a ton on his debut and became only the 8th New Zealander to do so.

For almost a decade, Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor had been the poster boys of New Zealand cricket, naturally attacking, playing audacious shots and defining the brand of cricket the Black Caps wanted to play. The sight of Kane Williamson amidst all this was calming, Kane a player who exudes calmness, confidence in his teammates and has this amazing flair in his batting was something New Zealand were always looking for.

The Kiwis have always been a competitive side in ODIs, reaching the semi-finals of 4 of the 5 World Cups since 1999, but they lacked the strength in the 5-day game, winning only 37 Tests out of 125 since 1st Jan 2000 and a win/loss ratio of only 0.740. Since Williamson’s debut, though, the Kiwi’s have improved on their Test win/loss ratio to 0.812 and it has been around this period where Brendon McCullum has assembled a brilliant unit with Guptill, Southee, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult all coming into the limelight. People have started taking New Zealand very seriously in both formats and their brilliant 2014 season culminated into the 2015 World Cup is a testimony to that.

Williamson has had a prolific last couple of years in ODIs, scoring 2087 runs at an average of 61.00 and winning 7 out of his 8 Man of the Match awards during this period. He is also the highest run-getter in 2015 in ODIs which is also the most runs a New Zealander has scored in any calendar year.

It will be exciting to see if this new New Zealand cricket team gets more opportunities to play cricket and how far does Kane Williamson takes their cricket as a lot of people already claim that the baton of New Zealand’s cricketing future is in his very able hands.