Kevin Pietersen vs Kane Williamson

[RossTaylorsBox]

Thank you, that made it simpler.

 

[Johan]

First thing first, I have no issue with any batter not performing in his first series when he was young. It I completely understandable that at that age with hardly any experience and still learning to master the game, it is a bit unfair to expect anyone to perform in alien conditions.

this doesn't really address the point, the point was that the indian team Pietersen faced was one where even a debut series Kane was scoring tons against, it's not even compareable to current India, the gap between the bowling attacks of post 2015 India and 2000s India is absurdly huge and enough for us to be objective and realize that success in 2000s India isn't really indicative of anything against someone playing against modern India.

But Williamson failed in 2016 India tour and 2021 India tour also. For a player of his calibre, he should have performed well there. Root hit tons every tour of India, Smith dominated in India in 2017 and although he failed in last tour but in 2017, he was just at another level. Williamson has simply not done that.

Steve Smith and Joe Root are legitimately gonna be in the conversation for the best Batsmen of this century, theyre not the benchmark at all, like on paper Root averages similar to Kevin Pietersen in India but the prior's ability to play spin is always respected much more because the India of this era have produced rank turners with quality pacers and two monster spinners, again, Steve Smith and Joe Root are better Batsmen than Kane Williamson is and obviously superior players of Spin, but that comparision only works because they share modern India as a common opposition, something KP doesn't

Williamson also toured Australia once in last few years and failed. Australia produced really flat tracks around 2014-2016 where both Kohli and Williamson scored lot of runs but Kohli did hit a test hundred in 2018 tour also and played a good knock in 1 inning he played in 2020 tour.

The Pitches of Australia during 2000s were also very flat, that does not mean KP's genuinely record gets ignored, same thing with Kane Williamson, and just because he struggled in a two test series doesn't mean were obligated to ignore his overall record in Australia being good.

Smith, Kohli and Root all have performed in South Africa but Williamson has failed to average well there also. His stats are extremely boosted via weak team bullying and when you compare the top teams away from home, KW falls way behind Smith, Kohli and Root.

he played one series there when he was 23 where he was bed and then one when he was like 26 and faced a top tier ATG attack and averaged 40+ in the series, what is KP's average in South Africa? yeah, 25, and Obviously Kane is seen as the last of the fab 4.

I have clearly put the facts in the other thread where I clearly mentioned that even if we exclude SL who are actually a better home side than Pakistan or Windies especially post YK' retirement and consider performance vs only top teams away ( Aus, Eng, SA, Ind), KW still falls well behind the other Fab 4 members and to make matter worse, his record is even worse than the 2nd tier batters such as Rahane, Matthews, Pujara, Azhar Ali etc.

No, be legitimate and count everything, UAE Era Pakistan wasn't terrible at home, on top of Windies have produced multiple quality bowlers at home like Kemar Roach, Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel and Kane has genuine match winning knocks there, I'm not gonna just let you pick and choose what matters and what doesn't

Talking about bowling attacks, as I said, KP also faced the likes of McGrath, Warne, Johnson, Harris, Steyn, Philander who are better bowlers than what Aus and SA have now or Murali who is better than what SL have now. So, need to consider all round rather than ignoring the quality attack that KP faced and scored and only counting for KW.

KW has also faced Steyn, Rabada and Philander. Cummins is way above Harris and Johnson, he also faced the Indian attack that's above the 2000s India attack, Windies bowling in last 10 years has been much superior to what 2000s, also while McGrath > Current Aussie pacers and Warne>Lyon, the Australia pitches of that era were much flatter than of today, and on top an attack of Cummins/Starc/Hazlewood/Lyon is amazing in it's own right, unlike the 2000s Indian attack that was infinitely inferior to today.

 

[Majestic]

I am running out of time so let's agree to disagree. I will conclude by saying that both have faced their share of quality bowlers and Pietersen has done comfortably better away from home vs top nations as compared to Williamson. Williamson is better at home but even there, he has a chink with hi performance against Australia.

Australian pitches were good in 2000s, they weren't absolute roads like the 2014-2016 phase. McGrath and Warne outfoxed the likes of Kallis, Sangakkara, Dravid, G Smith, Younis, Yousuf in Australia in mid-2000s but KP stood against him, I saw some interviews too were Shane Warne mentions that after Lara and SRT, KP was one of toughest to bowl. Yes that was KP at its peak but he was a player of high calibre.

 

[Coronis]

Steve Smith and Joe Root are legitimately gonna be in the conversation for the best Batsmen of this century,

Root isn’t even in the same conversation as Smith so how would he be in the conversation for batsman of the century?

If I had to say batsman of the century so far, its Smith, followed by a close trio of Kallis, Sanga and Ponting.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Root isn’t even in the same conversation as Smith so how would he be in the conversation for batsman of the century?

If I had to say batsman of the century so far, its Smith, followed by a close trio of Kallis, Sanga and Ponting.

Yea those four are the main candidates (Dravid as well maybe).

Root is in the tier below with Younis, De Villiers, Kohli, G Smith etc

 

[OverratedSanity]

Williamson is nowhere near as good as his average indicates but is also better than Pietersen. By a long long way, too.

 

[Johan]

Root isn’t even in the same conversation as Smith so how would he be in the conversation for batsman of the century?

If I had to say batsman of the century so far, its Smith, followed by a close trio of Kallis, Sanga and Ponting.

By century, I meant the ones who debuted this century, granted Sanga completely slipped off my mind, Root and Smith would be in my top 3 then, Smith at one and the second position depends.