Kane Williamson's meteoric rise

For the last several years, Kane Williamson has been touted as the Next Big Thing in New Zealand cricket, even world cricket. Those who have watched him bat from his early days have spoken of his technical excellence, his ability to bat long periods, his even temperament, and his ability to handle pressure - all attributes that are key ingredients towards the makings of a great batsman. A century on Test debut in India seemed to further confirm that Williamson was already the finished product even though he was only a 20-year-old at the time.

Over the next three years Williamson showed enough glimpses of his class, but in between there were also disappointing passages when potential didn't convert into runs. By the end of 2013, after three years in international cricket, Williamson had a Test average of 35.88 (from 29 matches), and an ODI average of 35.41 (from 47 games). While a mid-30s average wasn't so bad for a player who was in the early stages of his career, clearly it wasn't commensurate with the expectations he had generated, especially as a Test batsman.

Fast forward to the end of 2015, and all of that has changed. Williamson has scored so many runs over the last two years that he has established himself as one of the best going around today. And he has done it with the technical expertise and grace that is easy on the eye: on the aesthetics scale he is clearly above some of the other young batsmen who have also been prolific recently. The ICC rankings list him at No. 2 in Tests (after AB de Villiers) and No. 3 in ODIs (after de Villiers and Virat Kohli), and not many will dispute those numbers.

Since the beginning of 2014, Williamson averages 78.34 in Tests, the highest among batsmen who have scored at least 1000 runs during this period; in ODIs, he averages 61.38, next only to de Villiers and Ross Taylor, with the same runs cut-off. In all international matches he has 4267 runs, the highest among all batsmen in these two years. In Tests during this period, he has scored hundreds eight out of 12 times when he has passed 50, including a double-century and three other 150-plus scores; in ODIs he has 19 fifty-plus scores in 37 innings.

Highest averages in Tests since Jan 2014 (Min 1000 runs)

Player	Tests	Runs	Average	100s	50s
Kane Williamson	14	1802	78.34	8	4
Steven Smith	19	2339	75.45	10	7
Joe Root	20	2065	71.20	6	12
Younis Khan	17	1853	63.89	8	3
David Warner	19	2313	62.51	10	9
Kumar Sangakkara	16	1843	61.43	5	9

Highest averages in ODIs since Jan 2014 (Min 1000 runs)

Player	Mat	Runs	Average	SR	100s	50s
AB de Villiers	36	2072	76.74	126.88	7	11
Ross Taylor	37	1703	63.07	84.26	7	7
Kane Williamson	38	2087	61.38	89.11	4	15
Kumar Sangakkara	42	2118	57.24	93.30	9	10
Faf du Plessis	35	1674	55.80	85.49	5	12
Angelo Mathews	51	1665	52.03	88.61	1	11

Thanks to those outstanding numbers since the start of 2014, Williamson's career average in Tests has gone up from 35.88 at the end of 2013, to 49.26 now. That's a huge improvement in the span of 14 Tests, but it's also significant that a New Zealand batsman is so close to averaging 50 after having played so many Test matches. (If he gets out twice in Adelaide, he needs to score 154 to get to that 50 mark; it he gets out once, his target will be 104.)

Unlike some of the other teams, New Zealand haven't always had an abundance of batting riches in Tests. No batsman has scored more than 7200 Test runs, and among those who have topped 2000, the best average - apart from Williamson's 49.26 - is Ross Taylor's current average of 46.98. Martin Crowe finished with 45.36, while only five others have 40-plus averages.

If Williamson does lift his average to 50 - given his current form that looks a formality - it will be the most matches after which a New Zealand batsman has had a 50-plus average. In their entire Test history, only two batsmen have had a 50-plus average at any point in their career after playing 25 or more Tests - Glenn Turner and Andrew Jones. (These are averages at the end of a Test match, not after one innings.) Turner finished with a career average of 44.64, but after 32 Tests he averaged 50.42, after 31 he averaged 50.14, and he also had 50-plus averages after his 29th, 27th and 26th Tests. In his last 17 innings, though, he averaged only 27.64, which is why his career average fell so sharply at the end.

Similarly, Jones finished with a career average of 44.27, but after 25 he averaged 53.10, and 26 the average was 51.70. In his last 13 Tests, though, his average dropped to 32.08. Mark Richardson was the other New Zealand batsman who played 25-plus Tests and came close to an average of 50: after 26 matches he averaged 49.36, but thereafter his numbers fell steadily; the last time he averaged more than 50 was after 16 Tests (51.25).

The New Zealand batsman that Williamson is compared with most often, though, is Martin Crowe, arguably New Zealand's best in terms of technique, talent and style. When at his best, Crowe combined those attributes with an insatiable appetite for runs: between 1985 and 1991, which were his best years, no batsman averaged more than his 58.46; the next-best was Andrew Jones, with 54.93 (with a 500-run cut-off). Crowe, though, had a poor start to his Test career, averaging only 24.08 after 16 Tests; that ensured his career average never touched 50 at any point; it peaked at 48.41, after 61 matches, and finished at 45.36 after 77.

The other aspect of Williamson's career that has stood out so far is his consistency against different opponents. He has already scored Test hundreds against eight different opposition teams, despite having scored just 12 Test centuries so far. Only four other batsmen - Marvan Atapattu, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist and Ashwell Prince - have scored centuries against eight different teams in their first 12 Test centuries. The only opposition missing in Williamson's case is Zimbabwe, against whom his highest in three innings is 68. The two countries where he doesn't have a Test hundred yet are South Africa and Zimbabwe: he struggled in South Africa in 2013, scoring 43 runs in four innings. He didn't enjoy Australia much either on his first tour there in 2011, scoring 72 in four innings, but on the current tour he has scored more than five times as many runs. He will be looking to do something similar the next time New Zealand tour South Africa.

Williamson also has Test centuries in each of the four Asian countries he has played in - India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the UAE. In England he averages 30.87, but those numbers include a century, though an aggregate of 115 from the remaining seven innings don't make impressive reading.

The best is clearly yet to come, but already Williamson's records in Tests and in ODIs are the best among New Zealand batsmen. By the time he is done, his stats should compare favourably with the best in the world.