Kane Williamson

Northern Districts

Williamson made his debut for Northern Districts in 2007 at the age of 17, who he has remained with for the duration of his New Zealand domestic career.

English county cricket

Williamson signed for Gloucestershire to play in the 2011 English county season.^[9] On 14 August 2013, he signed for Yorkshire for the rest of the season and subsequently signed to return for the 2014 season, when his side won the County Championship.^[10][11] He signed to return the latter part of the 2015 season, but when incumbent overseas player Aaron Finch was not selected for the Australia ODI squad, Yorkshire ultimately chose to extend Finch's deal in place of Williamson.^[12][13] He subsequently signed a deal for part of the 2016 season.^[14]

Indian Premier League (IPL)

On 6 February 2015, Sunrisers Hyderabad of the IPL signed Williamson for US$96,500. He played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2016 season where they won the title. For the 2017 Indian Premier League he was retained by the side. In the 2018 IPL Auction, he was retained by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for US$460,500. On 29 March 2018, he was announced captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad replacing David Warner.^[15][16] Under Williamson's captaincy Sunrisers Hyderabad finished runners-up after Chennai Super Kings beat them in the final by 8 wickets, he also won the Orange Cap for scoring the most runs (735) in the 2018 IPL season.^[17]

Early days

Williamson was 17 when he led the New Zealand Under-19 side in the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008. New Zealand reached the semi-final where they lost to the eventual champions India. On 24 March 2010, Williamson was named in the New Zealand Test squad for the second Test against Australia,^[18] but ultimately he did not play in the match.^[19]

Williamson made his One-Day International debut against India on 10 August 2010. He was dismissed for a 9th ball duck. In his second match, he was bowled by Angelo Mathews for a second ball duck. He scored his maiden ODI century against Bangladesh on 14 October 2010 in Dhaka and hence became the youngest centurion in New Zealand's Test cricket history. Due to his performance on the Bangladesh tour where New Zealand suffered a 4–0 whitewash, Williamson was selected in the New Zealand Test squad for the tour of India that followed.^[20]

Williamson made his Test cricket debut against India at Ahmedabad on 4 November 2010. In his first innings he scored 131 runs off 299 balls and became the eighth New Zealand player to score a century on Test debut.^[21][22]

Rising through the ranks

Williamson scored test match score of 161 against West Indies in June 2014. It was his second test century of the series and helped secure a rare away test series victory for his side. Williamson finished as the leading overall run scorer in the series with 413 runs, and was denied a double century only by rain, which forced skipper Brendon McCullum to declare in the interest of obtaining a result in the match. He was also reported for a suspect bowling action in April 2014, but was cleared in December 2014.^[23][24] His illegal bowling action started after he left high school in order to get a faster release and turn on the ball. His new action essentially reverts him to his action in high school, with a more side-on approach and less wrist and elbow deviation.^[25] He was also named as captain ahead of the ODI and Twenty20 series against Pakistan as Brendon McCullum was rested.^[26]

Williamson is currently third on the list (behind Corey Anderson and Jesse Ryder) for the highest ever strike-rated century by a New Zealander in a One-Day International. He achieved the feat during his 100* off 69 balls against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo.^[27] On 19 September 2014 he scored his first T20 hundred scoring 101* in 49 balls to guide Northern Districts for a comfortable win against Cape Cobras in Champions League Twenty20 2014.^[28] He has also established one of the most potent no. 3-no. 4 top-order partnership with Ross Taylor, with himself being the most prolific no. 3 batsman for the national side since former captain Stephen Fleming.Apart from Fleming (in 2006), Williamson (in 2015) became the most recent no. 3 New Zealand batsmen to score a double century in Test cricket. However, Williamson and Taylor were also involved in 12 run outs across all forms of international cricket as of 26 January 2015 when they are both on the crease.^[29] As a fielder, his position is predominantly at gully,^[30] but can move to point with spin bowlers, or cover point or long off with fast bowlers.

In 2015, he started with 69 and 242* against Sri Lanka, with two catches in the field in a man-of-the-match performance.^[31] On 3 February 2015, he helped New Zealand score the 99th ODI century in the team's history against Pakistan; Ross Taylor scored the 100th in the same match. He also scored over 700 runs before the 2015 Cricket World Cup in just the first two months of the calendar year. On 17 June 2015 he became the fifth-fastest batsmen and fastest New Zealander to score 3,000 runs, getting them in just 78 innings. On 15 November 2015 Williamson and Taylor became the first pair of away batsmen to each score 2nd innings centuries at WACA Ground in Perth.

In December 2015, during the second Test against Sri Lanka, Williamson broke the record for the most Test runs scored in a calendar year by a New Zealander, with 1172 runs.^[32] He also ended 2015 with 2692 runs, the highest score across all forms of international cricket for the year, and third highest totals in a single year.^[33]

Captaincy and beyond

In March 2016, Williamson assumed the position of captain of New Zealand across all forms of cricket after the retirement of Brendon McCullum, beginning with the World T20I cup in India. He also picked up NZ player of the year, Test player of the year and the Redpath Cup for top batsman in first class cricket for the second year in a row.^[34][35]

In August 2016, during the Test series against Zimbabwe, Williamson became the thirteenth batsman to score a century against all the other Test playing nations. He completed this in the fewest innings, the quickest time from his Test debut and became the youngest player to achieve this feat.^[36] In the complete list of such batsmen, he has achieved this feat with minimum number of total centuries.

On 10 March 2017, Williamson joined Ross Taylor as joint second highest (first amongst active players) on NZ's Test century list, both one behind Martin Crowe. Williamson also took the fewest matches to score at least 16 centuries at 26 years of age (Cook with 22, Tendulkar with 19, Steve Smith got his 15th after his 27th birthday) due to NZ's lean Test schedule.

On 23 March 2018, Williamson scored the most centuries by a New Zealand batsman in Tests (18).^[37] In May 2018, he was one of twenty players to be awarded a new contract for the 2018–19 season by New Zealand Cricket.^[38] In September 2018, Williamson scored his 10,000th run in first-class cricket, batting for the English side Yorkshire in the 2018 County Championship.^[39]