Australia legend Ricky Ponting admits New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has proven him spectacularly wrong.
The former Baggy Greens captain says he had reservations about Williamson when he first laid eyes on the Kiwi batsman eight years ago.
Williamson was just 21 when he toured Australia in 2011 and struggled with the bat, averaging 18 and twice being caught by Ponting in the slips.
Since then, however, Williamson has developed into one of the best players in the world and a Kiwi legend, scoring 34 hundreds and 70 half-centuries for his country.
‘Brendon McCullum said to me then “this kid is going to be one of the best players in the world”,’ Ponting recalled to cricket.com.au.
‘And I thought “really?”. He was pretty loose outside off stump and was going pretty hard at the ball.
‘But when you see him now and what he’s developed into, he plays the ball later than anybody, he makes big runs, he makes runs consistently and he’s been talked about as a being one of the best players in the world for the last four or five years.
‘And he’s their captain, so he’s a very important player for them.
‘I’ve seen him turn himself from an ordinary T20 player into a very good T20 player, and that’s not an easy thing to do. That says a lot about the skill that he’s got.
‘He’s a bit like Smithy (in Test cricket); he’s very regimented in the way he plays, he plays the ball late, he doesn’t get a big stride at the ball.
‘But he’s just really hard to get out so I’m looking forward to the battle between him and our quicks.’
Williamson scored an unbeaten century in Hamilton last week to help New Zealand secure a series-winning draw against England.
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