Smith, Williamson, Root, Kohli: Rating the performances of the Big Four in the T20 World Cup 2016

Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson led his team to the semi-finals.

Williamson is arguable of the best players in the world right now who had an unreal year in 2015 in which he kept scoring runs for fun. The Kiwis were heavily reliant upon Williamson in the tournament to give them a solid start.

Thus, there was a lot on his plate as he was leading his team in a major ICC tournament for the first time after the retirement of their maverick veteran skipper Brendon McCullum.

Williamson was spot on with his captaincy in the tournament. From making changes for suitable conditions (going with the third spinner on spin-friendly pitches) to rotating his bowlers well, Williamson stepped in well into the big shoes of McCullum and led the team with great finesse. New Zealand in fact, looked like the team to beat until they were upset by England in the semi-final.

Williamson, however, would have dearly loved to have scored more runs with the bat. He kept getting starts and looked in good nick in every game with his drives and flicks demonstrating the importance of class batsmanship even in the T20 format. The Kiwi skipper, however, failed to kick on and get any big score.

Williamson ended the tournament with scores of 8, 24, 17, 42 and 32 from his five outings. He ended up scoring 123 runs in his five matches at an average of 24.60. The fans had expected a lot more from him. Maybe the added pressure of captaining the side at the big stage ultimately got to him.

Verdict: Williamson will be bitterly disappointed that he did not convert his starts into big ones. Some more runs in the semi-final could have especially had a crucial role to play. The Kiwi batsmen failed to score big runs in the tournament but it was their bowlers led by Santner and Sodhi who did remarkably well. Williamson needs to have the plaudits for his captaincy.

Rating: 5/10