Kane Williamson

New Zealand cricket captain Kane Williamson is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world. He serves as captain of the New Zealand national side in all formats. Williamson is a right-handed batsman who also bowls off spin occasionally. Along with Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Virat Kohli, ex-players Ian Chappell and Martin Crowe have put Williamson among the top four or five Test cricket batsmen of the contemporary era. Williamson was chosen to the ICC Test Team of the Decade (2011–2020) as the lone New Zealander.

In December 2007, Williamson made his first-class cricket debut. In the same year, he made his U-19 debut against a visiting Indian U-19 squad and was selected captain of the New Zealand U-19 team for the 2008 U-19 Cricket World Cup. In 2010, he made his international debut. Williamson has represented New Zealand in the Cricket World Cups of 2011, 2015, and 2019 as well as the ICC World Twenty20s of 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2021.

In the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, Williamson made his full-time captaincy debut for New Zealand. He led New Zealand to the final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, winning Player of the Tournament in the process. Williamson passed Steve Smith and Virat Kohli as the world’s top-ranked Test batsman on December 31, 2020, with a 890 Test batting rating. He was nominated for both the Sir Garfield Sobers Award and the Test Cricketer of the Decade. Williamson led New Zealand to the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in June 2021, before leading them to the ICC T20 World Cup final in November of that year.