Kane Williamson of New Zealand bats in the course of the first day of the primary cricket take a look at between New Zealand and South Africa at Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui, New Zealand, on February 04, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Set to play his a centesimal Test match, star New Zealand batter Kane Williamson on Wednesday recollected the “surreal” feeling he had when he was surrounded by the legendary Indian cricketers, together with the enduring Sachin Tendulkar, throughout his debut Test in Ahmedabad in 2010.
The 33-year-old Williamson, who made 131 in New Zealand’s first innings in the drawn Ahmedabad Test on debut, will likely be finishing a century of Tests in the second match of the two-Test collection in opposition to Australia starting right here on Friday.
“I remember walking out and looking around the field and seeing all my heroes. I used to love playing backyard cricket as a youngster, and all those guys were in that team that I would try and select,” Williamson instructed reporters.
“It was Tendulkar and Laxman and Dravid, and it was kind of like, ‘How am I here? I’d better start watching the ball and try and compete’.
“It was fairly surreal. I bear in mind being fairly desperate to try to get into the opposition’s dressing room and chat to some of these guys if I may.”
In that match, Virender Sehwag made 173, while Rahul Dravid scored 104 and Tendulkar 40 in India’s first innings total of 487.
Ninety-nine Tests and more than 10 years later, Williamson said he is still learning.
“Then a number of gray hairs later and (after) a quantity of totally different experiences over that point, there’s not been many days – most likely any – the place I have not tried to enhance and get higher as a participant,” said the right-handed batter who has scored 8675 runs at an average of 55.25, with the help of 32 hundreds and 33 fifties.
“It’s by no means an ideal journey. You undergo a lot. The format of Test cricket in explicit actually takes you thru that. The studying – bodily, (and) mentally – the reflection, (and) the recollections of virtually each Test that whenever you sit down and dissect it, there’s a lot that you just do recall.” One of Williamson’s career milestones was New Zealand’s World Test Championships final win against India in 2021 in Southampton, England.
“The Test Championship ultimate (in opposition to India in 2021) is one thing that stands out for a quantity of totally different causes. But it is a journey, and the highlights aren’t there with out the opposite.
“They’re all experiences that you value and learn from. To perhaps reflect on hundred of those, it’s something I never could have imagined.”
