Root and Smith are effective players in the shortest format, reckons Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli are touted as the fab four of this generations and the reasons are obvious. All these players came into the limelight and achieved stardom around about the same time period and since then, the competition has begun on who will end up as the best. The best part of this rivalry is, all these players respect each other a lot regardless of the rivalry on the field.

New Zealand skipper across all formats, Williamson is a solid batsman in the T20 format too, though he’s not blessed with a strong physique. He relies on his timing and placement and worked hard on these facets to excel in it. The 27-year-old currently is a part of the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and he said T20 allows him to explore a different side in him.

“The T20 game certainly allows you to explore different areas of your own game that you might then bring into your other formats a little. Natural shots like the lap and the reverse sweep – things like that – certainly aren’t the first thing that comes to your mind playing Test cricket, but in other areas just to try and get the ball to different parts of the field. So you’re always working on your game, which T20 always tests,” Williamson said speaking to ESPNCricinfo.

I realized slogging ain’t my cup of tea

The Kiwi said that he tries to be clever with his approach rather than trying to slog, which ain’t his forte. He believes it’s important to know where one’s strength lies and furnish them in the nets to build a better inning the next time one walks out to bat. T20 cricket is all about making canny adjustments and for a player like Williamson, whose basics are so strong, life is a tad bit easier.

”I try to make subtle adaptations rather than trying to slog, because I always go into the net and have a bit of a slog and realize that I’m not any good at it,” he said. ”But you still want to stick to the strengths that are important to your game – for some guys it’s power, for some guys it’s touch and it’s gaps. Whatever the recipe is for your game, I think it is important you do stick to that and just try and make those adjustments,” he added.

He further mentioned that cricketers like Joe Root and Smith fall into the category of the successful T20 players who barely slog. Yet, the English Test captain and the Australian captain across all formats have had a great impact in turning the game into their favour.

“Someone like Joe Root and Steven Smith – those sorts of guys have been excellent at it. Without being huge power players, they’re still very, very effective in this format,” he stated.

When asked about his definition of ‘good innings’, the right-handed batsman said, “A perfect T20 innings, yes, it’s scoring extremely fast and getting a good score and helping your team, but that won’t always happen – it’s high-risk, there’s a lot of failure in this format in particular. So it is being brave, sticking to a team plan, and just trying to help the team out as best you can.”