The Dominance of Serenity

I believe every batsman in the world is rated on how he performs outside his comfort zone. And very rightly, that’s the way to do it. There’s a league of batsmen lighting up the stage at this moment of time. Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson along with David Warner are those in the top of the league.

Many would argue about the absence of Abraham Benjamin deVilliers in that list. Considering his age and the fact that he is already a modern day legend, I would like to keep him out of this. FAB FIVE as most people say about them now-a-days, they really are fabulous to watch.

But every one of them is yet to conquer a territory outside their comfort zone. Virat is yet to dominate on seaming tracks. For Warner it’s the rank turners and for Root it’s the bounce that is troubling them. I wouldn’t say Smith has conquered it all yet. At this moment of time he is in his own league, but there are still a lot of loopholes in his technique. The advantage for steve smith is that he can play proper cricketing shots. But he also has this tail-ender slogs to put the good balls away and that makes it difficult for a bowler. The other three mentioned above is more likely to conquer their weakness sooner or later.

Among these young players, it’s Kane Williamson who stands out. He can play swing, spin and bounce as well. I wouldn’t say there’s nothing left for him to conquer, but he barely struggles anywhere in the world. He made his debut in India and made a century when his team struggled. He has dominated in England, New Zealand and Australia as well. He is not like a Warner to score at a strike rate excess of 130 or to score 150 more scores in ODIs like Virat or Rohit Sharma in ODIs. But he’ll score those 70s and run a ball hundreds consistently.

The most admiring thing about him is that he scores without any fuss. He silently does the job for the team. His calmness has made a huge impact on his team as well. Last year, Brendon McCullum in an interview when asked about the kids of New Zealand wanting to become like him, he said he would want them to grow up and become like Kane Williamson.

I seriously believe there’s a similar player who’s not considered in this top five more often than not. Ajinkya Rahane is very much similar kind of player to Williamson. He has already excelled in test cricket all over the world. But to perform as good as Kane does in limited overs cricket, the team management has to give him a settled batting slot and a long run like the Black Caps did.

He had to warm the bench for 16 consecutive test matches before making debut. But once he got his chance, he has capitalized on it after his nightmarish debut. As far as ODIs are concerned, he has reached 2000 runs in the same number of innings as Dravid did. Rahul Dravid went on to score 10,000 ODI runs. If Rahane continues to bat at No. 4 for India in ODIs, I strongly believe he’s silently going to pile up a lot of runs for the country.

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 With all due respect, Rahul Dravid cannot be compared to anybody in the cricketing world. But purely based on the nature of personality on the field and kind of cricket they play, I would be more than happy to say that both Kane Williamson and Ajinkya Rahane could well possibly become the Rahul Dravid of this generation.

 

 

Their serene nature is something that make all the three go unnoticed. May be that’s their gifted talent or maybe they might have worked hard for it. In either way, it is that nature which is going to make these two youngsters unique, like it did in the case of Rahul Dravid.

There’s always going to be a lot of fuss around Kohli, Root, Smith and Warner. But for me, Kane Williamson and Ajinkya Rahane are the two players who are going to achieve a lot than what is expected from them. They are the ones to watch out for in the coming decade!