The date was 2 February 1973. A lanky fast bowler from New Zealand charged in to bowl the very first delivery of his career. 17 years and 157 days later, the curtains came down on the glorious career of perhaps one of the greatest bowlers of all time, Richard Hadlee.
You must be wondering how this is relevant to a feature which is supposed to talk about Kane Williamson. Well, the reason is simple. Ever since Hadlee bid adieu to international cricket, there has been no New Zealand player who has raised such high hopes of becoming an icon of his stature for their country.
The Kiwis have had a number of great players over the past couple of decades – Martin Crowe, Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori and even Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor for that matter. But somehow, none of them fitted the bill to take over Hadlee’s mantle of being an icon.
However, Kane Williamson’s deeds with the bat in hand and the manner in which he has quickly risen up the ranks of New Zealand cricket prove that he is special. The others may have been special in their own way too, but Williamson looks to be a different breed altogether.
Early Impressions
4 November 2010, Kane Williamson makes his debut against India in Ahmedabad. The home team piled on the pressure putting 487 on the board on a flat deck courtesy of a big Sehwag century. New Zealand were struggling at 137 for 4 in their 1st innings when Williamson walked in to bat.
In what is likely to be a pressure situation for any batsman, let alone a 20-year old, the young batsman showed no sign of nerves scoring a patient 131 and took his team to a strong position.
By the time the match ended, everyone in the cricketing world knew that Kane Williamson had arrived. A quiet phase, which followed for about a year or so culminated in another rescue act by the sensational Kiwi talent.
It was the third and final Test of a home series against South Africa played at Wellington. New Zealand were trailing 0-1 and needed a victory to draw level in the series. Chasing 389 to win on the final day, winning the match turned into an impossible task with the home team reeling at 83 for 5 at one stage.
The situation required someone to step up and salvage the team’s pride and Williamson responded with an unbeaten 102 ensuring a draw for New Zealand.
Rising Up the Ranks
By the year 2013, Kane Williamson has already become a regular face in the Test set-up for the Kiwis. It is at this point that he added a new trait to his game which helped him become a reliable asset for his team; consistency.
Although the centuries came in a trickle with just one in the entire year, Williamson did manage quite a few 50 plus scores with 91 against England being the highest. It ended up being a decent year for the profusely talented New Zealand batsman with 747 runs from 11 Tests.
2014 turned out to be what one can call the graduation year for Kane Williamson as it gave the cricketing world a clearer picture of his enormous capabilities as a batsman. He opened his account in New Zealand’s first Test of the year with a century against India. This was followed by a highly fruitful tour to West Indies where Williamson ended up being the highest run scorer with 413 runs in 3 Tests.
He rounded off the year with an incredible 192 against Pakistan at Sharjah which contributed to his team's innings victory. The Kiwi batsman fell short of 1000 runs in the calendar year by just 71 runs and scored his runs at an average of 61.93 in 9 Tests.
Journey to the Top
For those who may have thought that his exploits of 2014 were the best he could do, Kane Williamson had completely different plans for 2015. These plans became more evident as he came up with his maiden double century against Sri Lanka in his very first Test this year, an unbeaten 242.
What followed was a year where Williamson laid to rest any doubts about his credentials as a world-class Test batsman and a legend in the making. Lord’s, Brisbane, Perth – he has conquered them all with fine centuries against some of the best bowlers in the world today.
His last Test innings of 2015 ended up being yet another century against Sri Lanka at Hamilton and propelled him to the top of the ICC Test rankings for batsmen. However, Kane Williamson’s rise to the No. 1 spot among Test batsmen hardly comes as a surprise considering the form he showed this year.
1172 runs in 8 Tests at an average in excess of 90 are numbers which even the masters of the game will be proud of. Add to that 5 Test centuries with a highest score of 242 not out and you know exactly why the ICC rankings have crowned Williamson as the best in world cricket.
Why he could be New Zealand’s new icon
Richard Hadlee was the first and perhaps the only icon New Zealand cricket ever had. How did he earn that status? The simplest answer to this is through his performance, which was not only consistent but also left a lasting impact on opponents and fans alike.
There have been many New Zealand cricketers after Hadlee who may have been even more talented than him, however, they fell short in one of these two aspects which were his forte. A few even managed to meet both criteria but for a limited period of time, either because it came too late in their careers or because they faded away too quickly.
Kane Williamson has been right up there in terms of impact as was visible in his very first Test innings and on many more occasions after that as well. Talking about consistency, he has added it to his repertoire ever since he got over the initial 2 years of settling down in the international game.
The only big question left for Williamson to answer is whether he can carry on with the good work he is doing for at least another 10 years. He will be 35 by then, which is about the average age for a modern-day cricketer to contemplate an exit.
If the answer to this question turns out to be in the affirmative at that stage, the baton of being an icon of New Zealand cricket would have already been passed on to Kane Williamson by then.
