Kane Williamson Biography — Cricketers Biography Blog

Kane Williamson was born on 8 August 1990 in Tauranga, New Zealand. His father Brett was a sales representative who had played under-17 and club cricket in New Zealand and his mother Sandra had been a representative basketball player. He has twin brother Logan, who is one minute younger than him. The brothers have three older sisters, Anna, Kylie and Sophie. All three were accomplished volleyball players. Anna and Sophie were in New Zealand age group teams.

Williamson played senior representative cricket at the age of 14 and first-class cricket at 16. He attended Tauranga Boys College from 2004–2008, where he was head boy in his final year. He was coached by Pacey Depina who described Williamson as having “a thirst to be phenomenal — but not at anyone else’s expense.” He reportedly scored 40 centuries before he left school.

Domestic Career

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. He scored his first T20 hundred, on 19 September 2014, making 101* in 49 balls. His century guided Northern Districts to a comfortable win against Cape Cobras in Champions League T20 2014.

Williamson signed for Gloucestershire to play in the 2011 English county season. 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. He signed to return the latter part of the 2015 season, but when mandatory overseas player Aaron Finch was not selected for the Australia ODI squad, Yorkshire ultimately chose to extend Finch’s deal in place of Williamson. He subsequently signed a deal for part of the 2016 season, and also returned for a part of the 2018 season.

International Career

Williamson was 17, when he led the New Zealand U-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, but ultimately he did not play in the match.

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 2nd 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 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.

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.

Williamson scored 161* against West Indies in June 2014, his second century of the series and helped secure a rare away Test series victory for his side. He finished as the leading overall run scorer in the series with 413 runs, and was denied a double century only by rain, which encouraged skipper Brendon McCullum to declarer in the interest of obtaining a result in the match. He was named as captain ahead of the ODI and T20 series against Pakistan as Brendon McCullum was rested.

Williamson scored 100* off 69 balls against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, which at the time was the second fastest century by a New Zealander in a One-Day International. He also established one of the most powerful top-order partnership with Ross Taylor, with Williamson himself being the most prolific no. 3 batsman for the national side since former captain Stephen Fleming. As a fielder, his position is predominantly at gully.

In 2015, he started with 69 and 242* against Sri Lanka, with two catches in the field in a Man of the Match performance. 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. He also ended 2015 with 2692 runs, highest total across all forms of international cricket for the year, and third highest total in a single year.

He was awarded the T20 Player of the Year by New Zealand Cricket for the 2014–15 season.

In March 2016, Williamson assumed the position of captain of New Zealand across all forms of cricket after the retirement of Brendon McCullum. 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 and became the youngest player to achieve this feat.

Williamson set a new record for scoring the most centuries by a New Zealand batsman in Tests, with his 18th, in March 2018 when he scored 102 against England at Auckland. Later that year, he scored his 10,000th run in first-class cricket, batting for the English side Yorkshire in the 2018 County Championship. On 8 December 2018, he scored his 19th Test century in the deciding 3rd game in the Pakistan away series. On 7 December 2018, Williamson became the first player from New Zealand to cross 900 rating points in the ICC Test batting rankings. During the 2019 Test series against Bangladesh, Williamson scored 200* as New Zealand posted a team total of 715, their highest ever in a Test innings. He also became the fastest New Zealand player to score 6,000 runs in Test cricket.

In April 2019, Williamson was named the captain of New Zealand’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. During the tournament, he scored an unbeaten 106 to guide New Zealand to victory over South Africa, scoring his 3,000th run as captain of New Zealand in ODIs in the process. On 22 June, Williamson scored 148 runs off 154 balls in a 5-run victory over West Indies, his career best score in ODI cricket. One week later, in the match against Australia, Williamson became the third-fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 6,000 runs in ODIs, doing so in his 139th innings. At the end of the World Cup, he was awarded the Player of the Tournament award after becoming the highest scoring captain in a single World Cup, making 578 runs in 10 matches.

In November 2020, Williamson was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, and the award for Test cricketer of the decade. On 4 December, Williamson scored 251 runs, his highest test score, in the first innings of the first Test against West Indies. His innings helped New Zealand win the match by an innings and 134 runs.

In June 2021, Kane Williamson led New Zealand to victory in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship, beating India in the final by eight wickets. In August 2021, Williamson was named as the captain of New Zealand’s squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Under his captaincy, New Zealand reached their third consecutive ICC event final across all formats after beating England in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup. In the final, Williamson scored a brilliant knock of 85 off 48 balls but ended up on the losing side after facing defeat to Australia by 8 wickets. He was New Zealand’s top scorer in the tournament with 216 runs at an average of 43.20.

Personal Life

Williamson and his wife Sarah became parents when their daughter was born in 2020. He stood down from the second Test against the West Indies so he could attend the birth.

During the New Zealand vs Pakistan 2014 ODI series, Williamson donated his entire match fee for all five ODIs to the victims of the 2014 Peshawar school massacre.

Williamson bowls and bats right handed but writes left handed.

So that’s it. I hope you all enjoyed reading about Kane Williamson (Ice Cool Captain of New Zealand and One of the Best Batsman of Cricket World).

Originally published at https://cricketersbiography.com on January 23, 2022.