Kane Williamson in action against South Africa at Bay Oval. Photo / Photosport
When a 20-year-old Kane Williamson walked out to begin his test career on day three at Ahmedabad in 2010, the Black Caps record at the time was 17 test centuries held by the great Martin Crowe.
A day later, Williamson was on his way, 16 shy of that mark after scoring 131 on debut. It’s very much on the cards that he could finish his career having doubled that mark by Crowe when he retires from tests, having reached century number 31 yesterday at Mount Maunganui.
Is 40 now realistic? That would put him at fourth on the all-time list. That seems some way away but considering Williamson had 21 tons just over three years ago, it might not be too far-fetched.
In his last 10 tests, Williamson has reached 100 on seven occasions - with six coming in six tests. It wasn’t that long ago that for a New Zealand player, six or seven tons was pretty impressive over a career (see Turner, Jones and Howarth).
Not to mention he suffered a devastating knee injury last year in between this current run, which ruled him out of cricket for six months.
In the past few months, Williamson has passed Don Bradman, Virat Kohli, Matthew Hayden, Joe Root and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to move to 13th on the all-time list. Serious greats of the game. He’s edging closer to a serious discussion of whether he overtakes Sir Richard Hadlee as New Zealand’s Goat.
Maybe a closer debate if Williamson gets to 36 centuries, matching Hadlee’s 36 five-wicket bags, which would put him fifth all-time.
But if you factor in Williamson’s ODI, T20 and captaincy record, he could be already there.
The last 10 times he’s reached 50, Williamson has gone on to reach 100, with the one exception being the World Test Championship final when he finished on 52 not out in a winning chase.
And why wouldn’t you expect much of the same next week against a tiring South African bowling attack when the second test begins at Seddon Park. Williamson has scored his most centuries (five) in Hamilton, where he averages 88.42. His last outing there in 2020 just happens to be his highest test score - 251.
Then it’s Australia visiting for two tests. The one team in the current World Test Championship he has yet to score a century against on home soil.
1) 131 v India, Ahmedabad, Nov 2010
2) 102* v South Africa, Wellington, Mar 2012
3) 135 v Sri Lanka, Colombo, Nov 2012
4) 114 v Bangladesh, Chattogram Oct 2013
5) 113 v India, Auckland, Feb 2014
6) 113 v West Indies, Kingston, Jun 2014
7) 161* v West Indies, Bridgetown, Jun 2014
8) 192 v Pakistan, Pakistan, Sharjah, Nov 2014
9) 242* v Sri Lanka, Wellington, Jan 2015
10) 132 v England, Lord’s, May 2015
11) 140 v Australia, Brisbane, Nov 2015
12) 166 v Australia, Perth, Nov 2015
13) 108* v Sri Lanka, Hamilton, Dec 2015
14) 113 v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Aug 2016
15) 104* v Bangladesh, Wellington, Jan 2017
16) 130 v South Africa, Dunedin, Mar 2017
17) 176 v South Africa, Hamilton, Mar 2017
18) 102 v England, Eden Park, Mar 2018
19) 139 v Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, Dec 2018
20) 200* v Bangladesh, Hamilton, Feb 2019
21) 104* v England, Hamilton, Nov 2019
22) 251 v West Indies, Hamilton, Dec 2020
23) 129 v Pakistan, Mount Maunganui, Dec 2020
24) 238 v Pakistan, Christchurch, Jan 2021
25) 200* v Pakistan, Karachi, Dec 2022
26) 132 v England, Wellington, Feb 2023,
27) 121* v Sri Lanka, Christchurch, Mar 2023
28) 215 v Sri Lanka, Wellington, Mar 2023
29) 104 v Bangladesh, Sylhet, Nov 2023
30) 118 v South Africa, Mount Maunganui, Feb 2024
31) 109 v South Africa, Mount Maunganui, Feb 2024
Kane Williamson 31
Ross Taylor 19
Martin Crowe 17
Tom Latham 13
John Wright 12
Brendon McCullum 12
Nathan Astle 11
Henry Nicholls 9
Stephen Fleming 9
Sachin Tendulkar 51
Jacques Kallis 45
Ricky Ponting 41
Kumar Sangakkara 38
Rahul Dravid 36
Younis Khan 34
Sunil Gavaskar 34
Brian Lara 34
Mahela Jayawardene 34
Alastair Cook 33
Steve Smith 32
Steve Waugh 32
Kane Williamson 31
Cameron McMillan has been a sports journalist since 2003 and is NZME’s Deputy Head of Sport. A career highlight was live blogging the 2011 Rugby World Cup final from Eden Park (in a media box surrounded by French journalists).