Williamson captures No.1 spot in ICC Test batting rankings: Kane Williamson became the first Kiwi batsman to top the ICC Test Rankings after his knock of 108* which came in a match-winning cause in the second Test in Hamilton between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. New Zealand therefore whitewash Sri Lanka 2-0 after beating them by five wickets on Monday.
The emerging batsman in world cricket has captured the top spot among the batsmen after finishing the year with a high note scoring at an average of 90.15 which is easily the highest.
Williamson jumped two spots and it helped him surpass Joe Root (886 points) and AB de Villiers (881 points) on the list. Following them and rounding the top five are the Australian pair of Steve Smith (874 points) and David Warner (863 points).
Williamson who scored his 13th Test century eclipsed Brendon McCullum’s record of most Test runs in a calendar year (1164) by a Kiwi. He scored 1172 Test runs in2015. Williamson has scored 2,633 runs so far this year across all formats, putting him fifth on the all-time list headed by Kumar Sangakkara (2,868 last year) and still three ODIs still to play in 2015.
Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum called him “The King” but Williamson swatted aside the praise. “It was an innings of sheer quality from “The King” and the rest of us were able to sit back and watch someone at the top of his game. I thought it was an outstanding innings.” McCullum said after the match winning knock in Hamilton.
With this match winning century, he equalled with Ross Taylor as the second best centurion by a New Zealand and four behind the national record held by Martin Crowe.
Kane Williamson: “From my perspective the most pleasing thing is each game you set out you want to contribute as best you can to a team performance. That’s all I want to do really. You talk about [record] years and things. Its very difficult to look at it like that.”
