Coronis
International Coach
Numbers Game: Kane Williamson's meteoric rise | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo No wonder NZ made it to the WC final. Williamson and Taylor WAG
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Yeah, tbf to you outside that big hundred he didn't do **** all that series. But that was when the England selectors first lost their mind and moved him up to opener. Prior to that he'd been tracking quite nicely at 5........nicely meaning settling into test cricket comfortably, not setting the world on fire.yep. thought it was flukey as hell. wrote it off as an isolated incident. just something about the way he batted, I dunno
obviously i was wrong
edit - i just checked his stats from that series... other than the 180 and another score of 60, his top was 30 from the other 8 innings. averaged 37. hardly ATG material
musta been why i didn't rate him
yeah i thought that too. His unbeaten 50 in Sydney??? I think when the rest of the team collapsed was his coming of age according to the commentators... but I thought it was going to be the high point of his careerI thought Smith in 2010 was a bits and pieces bloke with a muddled technique who was being fluffed around a bit and needed to choose batsman or leg spinner, I thought Root was quality when I first saw him and was initially optimistic about Kane but began losing faith and thought he might end up a high 30s or low 40s player.
I got Rahane (thought he was crazy but good enough to get away with averaging around 45, and he is but he's also got the ability to bat normally sometimes) but two big recent misses are Brathwaite and Latham. Latham especially loved to randomly flirt wide outside off in the 30s all the way until he got the full time test opener role and scored two tons in a row.
tl;dr - picking the best players of the future is hard.
I rate him. If Gayle could average 41-42, I see no reason why Braithwaite can't average a bit more. He's got a lot of hurdles which could prevent him from being that good though, main one being the team he plays in and obviously the board.Big call, 45+ is massive for an opener. He's not that good imo.
Him having hardly any front foot technique at all at the time against an excellent bowling attack with the new ball probably didn't help.yep. thought it was flukey as hell. wrote it off as an isolated incident. just something about the way he batted, I dunno
obviously i was wrong
edit - i just checked his stats from that series... other than the 180 and another score of 60, his top was 30 from the other 8 innings. averaged 37. hardly ATG material
musta been why i didn't rate him
tbf, most New Zealand CW's had stupidly given up on Williamson averging 50+ in test cricket 6 months into his career. Did my head in at the time. As did the whole "he'll just never be a good one day player" I think 20 tests into his career he'd played 14 of them away, and of those seven series only one fo them was a 3 test match series, his debut one against India. Otherwise it was just two test matches here, and then off to the next country. Tough on a really young kid tbh.I didn't think Kane would ever look quite this good. I though he'd have a record similar to Crowe, not be a guy who looks so.... Completely comfortable.
With the way that away sides are getting steamrollered right now it seems like that would be the easier way to learn in Test cricket, or at least a more useful way. If India and Australia had been able to get out of England after two tests they'd be going home pretty pleased with themselves. And I can't think of a tougher time for a player than when you're at the back end of a 4-0 or 5-0 smashing and the team just wants to go home.and of those seven series only one fo them was a 3 test match series, his debut one against India. Otherwise it was just two test matches here, and then off to the next country. Tough on a really young kid tbh.
He grew up as an opener, they were always going to give him a crack at it at some stage. Probably the best thing for him that they did it then, discarded the idea and let him be now.Yeah, tbf to you outside that big hundred he didn't do **** all that series. But that was when the England selectors first lost their mind and moved him up to opener. Prior to that he'd been tracking quite nicely at 5........nicely meaning settling into test cricket comfortably, not setting the world on fire.
Three test series could well be perfect from a developmental POV. They're long enough for you to learn what you're doing wrong, make changes and apply them to the next test but also short enough that you can escape after just three games if you don't have an answer.
Yeah, he'd have been planted there at some point, given the rate we go through openers. Would have been more detrimental had it happened in the last two years given his golden run.He grew up as an opener, they were always going to give him a crack at it at some stage. Probably the best thing for him that they did it then, discarded the idea and let him be now.