Opinion
Days after playing a marathon knock of 251 against the West Indies, Kane Williamson showed off his sheer range of shots against Pakistan at the Seddon Park in a T20 game.
He followed it up once again with a masterful Test hundred on a green top against the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Abbas and Naseem Shah.
It’s this ability to adapt to the extremes of Test cricket and T20 cricket so seamlessly that sets Kane Williamson apart.
Somewhere within the dynamic world of modern day T20 batsmanship, Williamson has managed to carve out a niche of his own.
Despite sticking to the old-school principles of shot-making, he manages to outdo his contemporaries.
This is a result of years and years of persistence coupled with a drive to succeed in the T20 format.
As recently as four to five years ago, nobody really rated Williamson as a T20 batsman.
That was evident with the dirt cheap price at which the Sunrisers Hyderabad had acquired his services. Cut to 2020, where he’s one of the most sought after cricketers in the world.
His moment of glory came at a time of grief for David Warner.
All set to don the regular captaincy duties at the IPL ahead of the 2018 season, the sandpaper saga had rocked Warner’s world, following which Williamson was appointed as the captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
What transpired was 735 runs at an average of 52! Surprisingly enough, even that proved to be unconvincing as Williamson failed to fetch a high bid (Rs. 1 crore) for the 2019 IPL.
Although he didn’t get nearly as many runs at the 2020 IPL (due to an injury), there was a different tempo to his game.
Picking the right deliveries to go after, finding the gaps, taking quick singles and an improved six hitting ability; it was a new age Kane Williamson who was out to prove a point.
An innings that really stood out was against a well-rounded KKR bowling attack, where he batted with a hamstring injury.
Quite literally on one leg, Williamson made room to caress it over cover, then nonchalantly flicked it over midwicket and as they bowled to a packed offside field, he shuffled across and scooped it over fine leg. This, for me, marked the arrival of Kane Williamson 2.0.
If even that wasn’t enough to convince a few, weeks later in a knockout match he played a controlled knock on a rather sluggish Abu Dhabi wicket to guide his side into the qualifier.
Test cricket has always been his strong suit. Well, with a debut hundred in India of all places, he made his intentions clear in the format. But because he relies on orthodoxy even in T20 cricket, he’s always had to do that little bit extra to prove himself.
Surely, any other cricketer would have sealed a million-dollar deal at the IPL after having a season as significant as Williamson did in 2018.
A tremendous amount of self-belief has made Kane Williamson the batsman that he is today, and may he long continue to believe.
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