Cricket: Kane Williamson officially world number one in test batting rankings

Kane Williamson. Photo / Getty Images.

Kane Williamson has moved to No 1 on the International Cricket Council's world rankings following his match-winning century against Sri Lanka in Hamilton today.

The honour caps a record-breaking year in whites for the Tauranga 25-year-old.

Williamson started the test behind AB de Villiers and England's Joe Root in test batting rankings, but passed both despite a rare failure in the first innings, when he was caught in the deep for 1. He will finish the year on 889 ranking points, three clear of Root and eight ahead of South African genius de Villiers.

To show he is no one-format-pony, Williamson is third on the ODI batting rankings, behind de Villiers and India's Virat Kohli.

Williamson's 108 not out today at Seddon Park put an exclamation point on an extraordinary personal year of test cricket, but there might be more records to fall.

To recap his test year:

• Williamson has scored the most test runs in a calendar year, 1172, surpassing Brendon McCullum's 1164 compiled in 2014.
• He has scored five test centuries, the most by a New Zealander in a calendar year.
• He scored a century at Lord's, etching his name on the Home of Cricket's famed honours board for eternity.
• He scored twin centuries in Australia, winning over the locals with his simple, classical technique and unruffled demeanour.
• He has averaged a ridiculous 90.15 for the year.

In some respects, it is easier just to look at the string of scores and ponder the work that goes in to being so consistently good: 69, 242 not out, 132, 27, 6, 0, 140, 59, 166, 32 not out, 22, 9, 88, 71, 1, 108 not out.

His only dud tests were on his county 'home' ground at Headingley and the pink-ball test in Adelaide (which some believe should be reverted to a non-official test).

But there could be more to come if his knee and finger injuries allow him to play the three pre-New Year's ODIs against Sri Lanka.

He now has 2633 international runs in all formats in 2015.

That puts him fifth on the all-time list, behind Kumar Sangakkara (2868 last year), Ricky Ponting (2833 in 2005), Angelo Mathews (2867 last year) and Ponting again (2657 in 2003).

Incredibly, Williamson's 38 matches played is seven less than the next lowest on that list, Ponting in '03, and 10 matches less than when Sangakkara set the record last year.

If Williamson plays the next three ODIs, he will almost certainly pass Ponting's '03 effort and Mathews, but he would need to bat superbly to get to Ponting's '05 aggregate and, ultimately, Sangakkara.

Would you bet against him, though?

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