Kane plays a straight bat
On the eve of his 100th test, Kane Williamson ducked a few bouncers about Neil Wagner’s retirement.
Kane Williamson has swatted away questions over Neil Wagner’s messy departure from test cricket, much like facing opposition bowling attacks.
Williamson and test captain Tim Southee will bring up the 100-test milestone in the second match against Australia, starting at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval tomorrow.
They will be just the fifth and sixth Black Caps to do so, joining Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori (112 matches), Stephen Fleming (111) and Brendon McCullum (101).
Williamson spoke proudly about the looming achievement, but was peppered with a couple of short balls at yesterday’s press conference.
Batting great Taylor stoked the fire in an interview with ESPN's Around The Wicket podcast, speaking about Wagner’s retirement last week on the eve of the Australia test series.
“It all makes sense a little bit now. There's no sugar-coating it – I think it's a forced retirement,’’ Taylor told the podcast.
Williamson had not read Taylor’s comments but denied that lion-hearted seamer Wagner had been pressured to retire.
Despite not being required for the first test, and subsequently retiring, Wagner still got a farewell, being part of the New Zealand dressing room in Wellington. He even stepped on to the ground as a substitute fielder, and stood with his team-mates for the national anthem.
“No, I don’t think anybody is forced to retire, and last week he had a fantastic week, and it was reflecting what was an incredible career, and we had some amazing moments in the dressing room,” Williamson said when quizzed about Taylor’s views.
Williamson also downplayed Wagner’s antics in the second test against South Africa in Hamilton last month, where he was seen putting his finger to his lips in a shushing motion after dismissing Zubayr Hamza in the Proteas’ second innings. He was also captured by photographers raising his middle finger after earlier taking a catch to dismiss Raynard van Tonder.
Wagner appeared to be directing his frustration at captain Southee after he was used as the sixth bowler in South Africa’s second innings.
“Has anybody spoken about that? But that was banter in the dressing room with Waggy [Wagner] and his fielding,“Williamson said.
“[Southee] ended up putting him down at fine leg, and to get a catch [off van Tonder] was quite amusing, so Waggy took his opportunity. Out of context it doesn’t look great, but it was a little bit humorous at the time, and all the players understood the context.”
Williamson was more excited to chat about his 100th test.
New Zealand’s greatest batter has forged the kind of numbers that will likely never be repeated by a Black Cap. His 32 test centuries are tied for 11th-most of all time with Australian rival Steve Smith.
He has 13 more test centuries than the next best for New Zealand (Taylor, who has 19), racking up 8675 runs from 99 matches at a sublime average of 55.25.
Williamson made his debut against India in Ahmedabad in November 2010. It didn’t take long to show his class, scoring a ton in his first innings, going on to post 131.
Walking out to bat at the then Sardar Patel Stadium, he almost had to pinch himself, surrounded in the field by Indian legends he idolised growing up.
“I used to love playing backyard cricket as a youngster, and all those guys were in the team that I would try and select, and it was (Sachin) Tendulkar and (VVS) Laxman and (Rahul) Dravid – and it was kind of like, ‘How am I here?’.’’
Fourteen years and 99 tests later, Williamson has not changed too much.
He joked that he couldn’t grow facial hair back then, rocking a clean-shaven face. Williamson remained the humble, easy-going character who was constantly striving to perfect the craft of batting.
Asked whether there might be a tear when standing alongside Southee tomorrow as the anthem sounded out on their big day, he said it was unlikely.
“Basically, I don’t know, so if you see me crying, you can say, ‘I told you so’, but I don’t believe so. We’ll be focused on what we’re trying to do.’’