Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson is a New Zealand international cricketer

Kane Stuart Williamson (born 8 August 1990) is a New Zealand international cricketer who is currently the captain of the New Zealand national team. He is a right-handed batsman and an occasional off spin bowler & is considered as one of the best batsmen of the current generation. He captained the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eleventh season of the Indian Premier League. Williamson has played for Northern Districts in domestic cricket in New Zealand as well as for both Gloucestershire and Yorkshire in the English county cricket.

Williamson made his first-class debut in December 2007. He made his U-19 debut against the touring Indian U-19 team the same year and was named captain of the New Zealand U-19 team for the 2008 U-19 Cricket World Cup. He made his international debut in 2010. Williamson has represented New Zealand at the 2011 and 2015 editions of the Cricket World Cup and 2012, 2014 and 2016 editions of the ICC World Twenty20. He made his full-time captaincy debut for New Zealand in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India.

At various times Ian Chappell and Martin Crowe have ranked Williamson among the top four or five test cricket batsmen, along with Joe Root, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and David Warner.

On 6 February 2015, Sunrisers Hyderabad of the IPL signed Williamson for US$96,500. He played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2016 season where they won the title. For the 2017 Indian Premier League he was retained by the side. In the 2018 IPL Auction, he was retained by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for US$460,500. On 29 March 2018, he was announced captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad replacing David Warner. Under Williamson's captaincy Sunrisers Hyderabad finished runners-up after Chennai Super Kings beat them in the final by 8 wickets, he also won the Orange Cap for scoring the most runs (735) in the 2018 IPL season.

On 10 March 2017, Williamson joined Ross Taylor as joint second highest (first amongst active players) on NZ's Test century list, both one behind Martin Crowe. Williamson also took the fewest matches to score at least 16 centuries at 26 years of age (Cook with 22, Tendulkar with 19, Steve Smith got his 15th after his 27th birthday) due to NZ's lean Test schedule.

On 23 March 2018, Williamson scored the most centuries by a New Zealand batsman in Tests (18). In May 2018, he was one of twenty players to be awarded a new contract for the 2018–19 season by New Zealand Cricket.