New World Test Championship cycle marks the beginning of the end for Black Caps great Kane Williamson
Monday, 1 December 2025
The beginning of the end in test cricket is here for Kane Williamson, as he and the Black Caps embark on a rare three-match series on home soil, starting at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Tuesday.
The first test against the West Indies will be the 35-year-old’s first red-ball international in almost a year, after he sat out New Zealand’s only other series in 2025 – a perfunctory 2-0 win in Zimbabwe in July – while playing for Middlesex in England.
By some nine weeks, it is the longest break between tests Williamson has had in his storied 15-year career.
Combine that with the fact that this is the start of a new World Test Championship cycle for the Black Caps, and there is certainly a sense that it is the start of a new chapter.
But not just any chapter.
What is likely to be the final chapter.
Williamson is inarguably the greatest male batter New Zealand has ever produced.
In his 105 tests, he has scored 9276 runs at an average of 54.88 with 33 centuries and 37 half-centuries.
He needs to play eight more tests to become the national record-holder there, but otherwise his marks are best in class.
Average aside, they are unlikely ever to be eclipsed.
Which means New Zealand cricket fans should savour the chance to watch him in action while they can.
Williamson retired from Twenty20 internationals last month, doing so even though coach Rob Walter and captain Mitchell Santner were adamant he was part of their plans for the next World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February and March.
He hasn’t spoken to New Zealand media since last December and it’s therefore hard to get a proper read on his long-term thinking.
When prompted, he has said the next one-day international Cricket World Cup in Africa in October and November 2027 is on his radar.
That tournament and the end of the fourth World Test Championship cycle earlier that year therefore look like natural endpoints.
But the next T20 World Cup was on his radar until he walked away from it in November, so it’s worth being on guard for the possibility the end in the other two formats could come at any time.
Williamson is not going to have a line drawn under his career by someone else, like what happened with Neil Wagner early last year.
But neither is he likely to play on for the sake of pomp and ceremony after it becomes clear his time is up, like what happened with Tim Southee at the end of last year.
One thing that’s for certain is that we’re in the endgame now.
Since Williamson’s last outing, test cricket’s Fab Four, as dubbed by Martin Crowe in August 2014, has lost its first member and become a trio.
Virat Kohli, who is almost two years older than Williamson, announced his test retirement in May, after India’s poor tour of Australia last summer. Already retired from T20Is, he is still active in ODIs.
Australia’s Steve Smith, like Williamson, who he is just over a year older than, continues on a series-by-series basis. His days as a white-ball international are already over.
England’s Joe Root, younger than Williamson by four months, is still active in test and ODI cricket and recently signed a new England contract through to September 2027. His last T20I was in 2019.
Williamson and Root are set to go head to head in a test series for the 10th time in their careers in England next June, while Williamson and Smith are set to face each other for the fifth time in Australia next summer.
That series – featuring four tests in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney – is one New Zealand cricket fans will be eager to have Williamson around for.
The Black Caps’ only test win over Australia in the last 32 years, in Hobart in 2011, was the second of Williamson’s 11 matches in the trans-Tasman rivalry.
The other 10 have ended in nine defeats and a lone draw, so adding at least one more win over Australia should hold plenty of appeal, especially as he has only passed 50 twice in his last 15 test innings against them.
But that’s a year away.
For now, it’s the West Indies, who haven’t won a test in New Zealand since 1995 and are without Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph, two of their leading seamers.
After playing two ODIs against England in mid-November – his first Black Caps matches in any format since February – where he made 0 and 21, Williamson sat out the third with a minor groin issue.
He returned to action with Northern Districts in the Plunket Shield last week, but only made 17 and 3, falling both times to left-arm spinner Rohit Gulati.
Through the first three editions of the World Test Championship, Williamson has been the dominant batting force.
In the first cycle, from 2019 to 2021, he had the fourth-best average of every batter who played at least 10 innings – 61.20.
From 2021 to 2023, he had the best – 75.20.
From 2023 to 2025 he had the third-best – 54.85.
No-one else has featured in the top five in all three cycles. Only Babar Azam from Pakistan (second in 2019-21 and fifth in 2021-23) has appeared twice.
Will it be the same from 2025 to 2027?
Will Williamson play the whole cycle?
The Black Caps next head to England in June, then host India next November – the series where Williamson is set to become New Zealand’s most-capped test cricketer, if he plays every match beforehand.
After the four-test odyssey in Australia, they then have two at home against Sri Lanka, before finishing with two tests in Pakistan, three months out from the next final at Lord’s in London in June 2027.
Answers to those questions will come starting Tuesday, but it’s probably best to sit back and enjoy the ride until Williamson decides it is time to hit stop.
“Kane is nothing short of an icon in our game, really, isn't he?” coach Rob Walter told Stuff in an interview last month.
“He's massively important. He adds huge value to our team, not through weight of runs, but just as the person that he is in the change room.
“Ultimately, as we move forward, we just literally take what's in front of us in. This test series is our is our main focus, and we're in conversation all the time.
“Ultimately, whatever decision Kane comes to, we understand where he is in his career, and he's been open about that, but we'll obviously take him whenever we can get him.
“If he needs to spend some time deliberating as to exactly how that might look and the mechanics of it, then he's absolutely earned the right to do that.
“I think the most important thing is that we keep talking.
“We know that when he's in the environment, He's highly committed. He sets great standards. He's such a good ambassador for the game, but also for our team in terms of preparation and the professionalism around the game and the way he thinks about the game.
“There's really no downside to him being around.”
Kane Williamson – World Test Championship record
2019–21: 918 runs in 16 innings at an average of 61.20 with three 100s, two 50s
2021–23: 752 runs in 12 innings at an average of 75.20 with three 100s
2023–25: 1152 runs in 22 innings at an average of 54.85 with five 100s, four 50s