Like a steady wind that slips through a half-open window at night, Kane Williamson reigns without any fuss. Not for him the high-octane blend that Virat Kohli dishes out nor the attention that Joe Root and Steve Smith inevitably draw. Williamson would rather say, ‘It is what it is’, ruffle his beard and, with a philosopher’s demeanour, move on in life and score runs. And if they turn out to be a mountain, so be it.
He is one cricketer who is often queried about his personality traits in press conferences while cynical sportswriters inexplicably turn sentimental. You perhaps miss some soft light and the fragrance of incense sticks. This could well be a feel-good evangelist indulging in mass hypnosis. Williamson, if you want to distil him into a Bollywood image, is akin to Shah Rukh Khan’s famous outstretched arms in that ‘love you all’ pose.
Warmth and goodness
There is warmth and a languid ease, and we are not talking about the Archies cards that you gifted to your first love. This is Williamson, a man who once got stumped in a media interaction as a scribe asked him: “How can you be so good?” He looked perplexed, narrowed his eyes, and then the lips broke into a half-smile, and a few words emanated. Quickly he realised that he can’t talk so much about himself and then shyly waved his hand.
Years ago, V.V.S. Laxman, another batting artist praised for both his runs and impeccable behaviour, quizzically asked: “Is it so difficult being nice?”
The self-effacing trait is perhaps intrinsic to Williamson’s country New Zealand, an island nation just below Australia, resigned to that old cliche about having more sheep than people. But there was no mistaking the inevitable limelight that was bound to follow Williamson. Since his under-19 days when he first ran into Kohli and forged a friendship beyond the ropes and a healthy competition on the field, Williamson was marked out as a special talent.
It was a judgement that he lived up to right from his Test debut hundred (131) against India at Ahmedabad in 2010. Cut to the present, he has played 98 Tests, amassed 8,666 runs studded with 32 tons. In terms of aggregate, he stays below his contemporaries Root (11,599), Smith (9,634) and Kohli (8,848). However, when it comes to hundreds, he is on par with Smith at 32 apiece and above Root (31) and Kohli (29). This statistic is specific to current players while in the overall list, Sachin Tendulkar remains numero uno at 15,921 runs and 51 centuries.
Mountain of runs
Remarkably, Williamson’s yield gained a massive fillip in recent times as he went past the three-figure mark on seven occasions spread over seven Tests. He scored two tons in one game (against South Africa at Mount Maunganui) and in another he eked out a mere 13 and 11 (against Bangladesh at Mirpur). His scoring sequence over his last seven Tests are: 4, 132, 1, 121 n.o., 215, 104, 11, 13, 11, 118, 109, 43 and 133 n.o. The harried rivals were England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Having suffered a knee injury during last year’s Indian Premier League, Williamson underwent surgery, did his rehabilitation and slowly found his way back. He may have lost a few months as a player but his innate assurance remained intact and soon the opposition paid a price. The finest batters nudge the scorecard without much ado, Williamson belongs to that creed.
He has enormous patience, can also get busy at the crease and just watches the ball closely before lining it up and then making that split-second decision about whether to defend, attack or just leave. Gifted willow-wielders can at times let their ego mess with their heads. Even Williamson’s current rivals on the pedestal of batting greatness are not immune to it. Be it Root, Smith or Kohli, the odd rush to show the bowler his place has cost them their citadel.
Meanwhile, Williamson is the kind that stays flint-eyed on the delivery and then reacts. All batters know that eventually one ball will have their name inscribed on it and yet they soldier on in their varied ways. With Williamson, seeing him in the dressing room post a batting stint, you would never know if he suffered a blob or scored a hundred. This is a river that has very few ripples, and one that is always focused on the imminent estuary.
A prolific streak is something that acclaimed batters get to enjoy at various points in their career and then there would be a few slumps. The best know how to capitalise on these extended good shows with the bat.
A few decades ago at Bengaluru’s leafy RSI Ground, Dilip Vengsarkar, Lord of Lord’s and one who had his fair share of steady runs and the odd blip, said that he would be switched on while facing the likes of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram but lower his guard against a part-timer and lose his wicket. The ‘Colonel’ then stressed that irrespective of the quality of the attack, a ‘batsman in form should always maximise his runs’.
New Zealand’s pre-eminent bat
Williamson surely does that. That South Africa sent across a second-string team cannot be denied but the New Zealand legend can only play the bowlers he is offered to compete against and he made the most of it. He is New Zealand’s pre-eminent batter, above his good mate Ross Taylor, the iconic late Martin Crowe, the maverick Brendon McCullum and the steady duo of John Wright and Stephen Fleming. All of them, with the exception of McCullum, were the types who pocketed runs efficiently, more accumulation than extravagance even if Taylor revealed an aggressive veneer in coloured attire.
Strong on either side of the wicket, Williamson is so good that he, to quote a recent headline, ‘could be boring.’ He is this fixed deposit that gives returns all the time and is immune to the flash and crash of the business indexes. He is pleasing to the eye and even if he isn’t exactly a poem like Crowe was nor a splash of fiery red that Mark Greatbatch was, Williamson has found his niche. He can play pace and spin with felicity, has great hands, his footwork has a clockwork precision and then he will make us drool by posting videos of him slicing tennis-ball catches to his dog.
At 33, Williamson the batter is primed to scale the run-charts. Currently placed 25th in the list of highest run-scorers in Tests, he is bound to shoot ahead. Having relinquished captaincy in Tests while leading in the shorter formats, Williamson is a throwback to a genteel past. A knight astride a horse, doing his village rounds and stopping at the coffee shop for a light brew with a lot of ‘good days’ and ‘thank yous’ thrown in.
