Kane Williamson – Tim Wigmore on the Kiwi great

There have been few lower-key Test series in recent years than New Zealand’s Zimbabwe tour. Yet Bulawayo on August 7 was the scene of Test match history. Kane Williamson became the 13th batsman to score centuries against all the other nine Test nations, the first New Zealander to achieve the feat and the youngest ever.

Williamson brought up his full house a day before turning 26; no other player has done it before turning 30. Even allowing for how Zimbabwe have only been a Test nation for 24 years, and play so few Tests that they recently lost their ranking, it is an extraordinary record, a testament to how Williamson has the class and adaptability to thrive anywhere.

Kiwis have long recognised as much. As a callow 20-year-old,Williamson was entrusted to make his Test debut against India in Ahmedabad six years ago. He emerged with New Zealand in a heap at 137-4, the small matter of 350 runs behind India. In 391 minutes of adhesive batting, never did Williamson look overwhelmed. When he reached his century, he eschewed any great histrionics, and just calmly removed his helmet and revealed a little grin – and then got back to work. It was the mark of the man.

Doug Bracewell, who has played with Williamson for New Zealand, remembered him as a child:“He wasn’t like other kids. They played for fun but Kane played for a different reason – he played to succeed. That was how he had fun.”

There is no great mystique to the Williamson method. He has an impeccable defence, and eviscerates any delivery offering width. He is remorseless in working the ball off his hips, and relishes hooking – always hitting the ball down, to minimise risk. He is nimble against spin and a terrific sweeper of the ball.

In the age of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, such qualities might sound a little prosaic.Yet in Test cricket Williamson loses nothing by comparison. His unremitting excellence is impervious conditions or circumstance: 10 of his 14 Test tons have come away from home, and he has scored a century away to every other country (albeit in the UAE against Pakistan) bar South Africa. Given New Zealand play two Tests in South Africa later this month, that could soon change.

Even if he lacks pyrotechnics, Williamson is capable of scoring at high speed, such is his cocktail of timing, placement and considerable power. At the Gabba last year, New Zealand were overwhelmed by Australia. Only one batsman in New Zealand’s first innings passed 47, but how:Williamson not only resisted but went on the attack, scoring 140 in 178 balls. It was a distillation of classical batsmanship at its best: all of Williamson’s 24 boundaries were fours.

Such adaptability explains why Williamson is not merely a supreme Test player, but an outstanding limited overs player. In ODIs,Williamson is the consummate No.3: a dependable anchor who unobtrusively scores at not much less than a run a ball, and knows when the time is right to strike.

Against Australia in the last World Cup, Williamson remained impervious to the bedlam around him.With New Zealand needing six to win, and Williamson having only Trent Boult for company, he promptly launched the first ball he faced during the tenth wicket stand over long on for six, enrapturing Eden Park. And yet, in the Press conference, he reverted to his dour type, better resembling a man who just returned from a tedious day as an accountant than one who had just won an epic World Cup match.

This distilled the essence of Williamson: how unremarkable he is, despite his cricketing exploits. It was a window into the best of the New Zealand sporting character: the contempt for histrionics, the focus on the team and the underlying egalitarianism. One of the reason why New Zealand have traditionally been one of the world’s leading fielding sides – often the best – is lack of hierarchy, the sense that no captain should demand of his men what he himself does not do. It was evident in Brendon McCullum hurtling himself into the advertising hoardings in a vain attempt to save a run in a dead World Cup match against Bangladesh last year.

Now the mantle of skipper has passed to Williamson. So far he has adapted superbly having learned from McCullum without being consciously trying to mimic his style.Williamson has far too much strength of character to go against his best instincts.

His challenge is how to lead while cementing his reputation as the best batsman that New Zealand has ever had. Williamson’s tally of 14 Test hundreds is only three behind the late Martin Crowe, New Zealand’s all-time record holder and one of his mentors. There would be no more worthy inheritor of Crowe’s crown.