Kane Williamson is considered one of the best New Zealand cricketers. He is considered to be in the league of greats like Martin Crowe, Stephen Fleming and the like. Today this Kiwi captain has established his place at the top of cricket. Williamson holds the record for the fastest 6,000 runs in the ODI format. Due to his calm demeanor and excellent performance on the field, he was an obvious choice for the post of captain of the New Zealand cricket team following Brendon McCullum’s retirement from international cricket.
Ken Williamson Childhood and Early Life
Kane Williamson was born on August 8, 1990 in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand to Sandra and Brett Williamson. He grew up with his twin brother, Logan, along with three older sisters, Anna, Sophie, and Kylie.
Williamson initially took his early education from ‘Pillans Point Primary School’ and then ‘Otomoitai Intermediate’. He eventually graduated from ‘Tauranga Boys’ College’. ‘Pillans Point’ was not just an ordinary school. It was the only school in the area to run a cricket programme.
Williamson started playing first-class cricket at the age of 16 and won the State Championship in 2007–2008. Before leaving college, Williamson had achieved the number of 40 centuries.
At the age of 17, Williamson led the under-19 New Zealand cricket team to the 2008 World Cup semi-finals in Malaysia, where they lost to India.
Ken Williamson Personal and Family Life
Williamson is married to his girlfriend, British-born nurse Sarah Rahim. Sarah is a graduate of ‘Bristol University’.
Ken Williamson Cricket Career
Kane Williamson made his international debut in August 2010, but made his One Day International (ODI) debut in Sri Lanka, a tri-series tournament against India. Where he was dismissed for a “duck” on the ninth ball. After this, Williamson was “ducked” out on the second ball in the next match against the Sri Lankan team.
Before the year ended, in October 2010, Williamson responded to his previous failures by scoring his maiden century in the ODI series against Bangladesh. In the same year he scored his century in the Test team. He scored his first Test century against India a month later. With his 131 in that Test match, he became the eighth New Zealand player to score a century on Test debut.
In 2012, a struggling New Zealand team saw two great efforts, both due to two great Test innings played by the young striker. Williamson made a mammoth score of 135 to win against the Sri Lankan team in Colombo. He also showed understanding against the South African raider Dale Steyn, scoring an unbeaten 102 in a mammoth chase of 389.
In 2014, Williamson reached new heights in all formats of the game. In a rare out-of-home victory for New Zealand, he scored 2 centuries in the 3-match Test series against the West Indies. His 413 runs made him the man of the series. In the same year, he made a record partnership of 365 runs with BJ Watling in a Test match against Sri Lanka.
In 2014 itself, he scored a record 5 consecutive 50s in the ODI series against India, becoming only the second man in the history of the game (after Yasir Hameed of Pakistan) to achieve this feat. He also became the fourth New Zealand player to score 5 or more consecutive 50+ scores in ODIs.
In 2015, he scored a total of 2,633 runs across all formats and became the first “Blackcap” batsman to score more than 2,000 runs in a year. This earned him a reputation similar to legends like Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara. He scored 5 Test hundreds that year, the joint-highest with Steven Smith. The year started for him with an unbeaten 242 in Wellington. He scored centuries at ‘Lord’s’ and in Brisbane, Perth and Hamilton.
2016 saw the heavy responsibility of captaincy fall on the young shoulders of Kane Williamson, but his calm and composed personality made it seem easy. He continued to create records in the longer form of the game. Following his century against Zimbabwe that year, he became the youngest batsman to score a century against every Test playing nation and did so in less than an innings.
Williamson was signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL). However, he played his first ‘IPL’ match in 2016. He was retained in the team for the next few years and in 2018 he was appointed as the captain of ‘Sunrisers Hyderabad’.
He started playing English county cricket in 2011 with Gloucestershire. He signed with Yorkshire in 2013.
He got a chance to captain his country again in the 2019 World Cup.
Awards and Achievements
Kane Williamson received the prestigious ‘Bailes Real Estate Sportsman of the Year’ award in the year 2015.
Kane reached the number one position in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) world Test rankings in 2015.
In 2018, Williamson became the first New Zealand player to achieve more than 900 rating points in the ICC’s Test rankings.
He was awarded the ‘Orange Cup’ for scoring the most runs in the 2018 ‘IPL’ season.
Interesting Facts about Ken Williamson
Kane Williamson was born just minutes before his twin brother, Logan.
He is a left-handed player, although he plays as a right-handed player.