Record-breaking former Yorkshire CCC batsman Kane Williamson shows his star quality - Chris Waters

That was the question I recall writing when Kane Williamson joined Yorkshire in 2013.

Back then, Williamson had a modest record, averaging 31.47 from 25 Tests.

Now he is New Zealand’s highest scorer in the format after overtaking Ross Taylor’s tally of 7,683 with an innings of 132 against England in Wellington, a man so ‘able’ that he is the cricketing equivalent of a biblical notable.

Williamson’s 26th hundred on his 92nd appearance lifted him to 7,786 runs at 53.33, an average higher than fellow ‘Fab Four’ members Joe Root (50.01) and Virat Kohli (48.49), with Steve Smith (60.12) out in front as the John Lennon/Paul McCartney of the operation, depending on preference.

More important than any personal milestone, though (for Williamson is the epitome of the selfless team man), is the fact that his latest masterclass raised New Zealand’s hopes of becoming only the fourth team to win a Test after following-on, the others being England against Australia at Sydney in 1894, England against Australia at Headingley in 1981, and India against Australia in Kolkata in 2001.

For that to happen, New Zealand contemplated ahead of day five the requirement to prevent England from making the 210 further runs they needed after closing on 48-1 in pursuit of 258.

“All to play for, which is exciting,” said Williamson, who added that passing Taylor’s mark was “not something I’ve thought a whole lot about”.

Ordinarily, one might be inclined to take such a comment with a pinch of salt, for who wouldn’t think about it “a whole lot” on the cusp of such history?

But it was typical of this most unflustered and understated of men.

Indeed, this writer’s abiding memory of Williamson during his four spells at Yorkshire between 2013 and 2018 was, paradoxically for a man of such little hyperbole, something that he said off the field as opposed to anything he did on it.

I asked Williamson at a pre-season media day whether he felt added pressure to perform as an overseas “star”, the sort of fawning question that it is all too easy to blurt out in search of a line.

Perhaps sensing my unspoken wish that I had not phrased it so, Williamson recoiled somewhat and said “star?”, the implication being that he considered himself to be anything but - a rare case of a trite enquiry eliciting a revealing insight into an interviewee’s character.

Of course, “star” is exactly what Williamson has become in cricketing terms, as luminous as Sirius in Canis Major.

The man who first signed for Yorkshire as a 23-year-old has advanced to heights as then unimagined, heights which are actually at variance with a Yorkshire record which, although eminently respectable, contained only one hundred in 66 first-class innings for the club.

Williamson’s modus operandi, then as now, was orthodox batting to which he has added flashes of flair in the T20 era.

Prodigious powers of concentration and a tough competitive streak have won him admirers across the world, with his mental strength always a big part of his make-up.

For that reason, one sensed that Williamson was perhaps a touch more disappointed than delighted on a day when he broke Taylor’s record, for his dismissal triggered a collapse which saw New Zealand lose their last five wickets for 28 runs, ensuring that England’s target would stay within manageable reach - albeit the highest left for a team that had enforced the follow-on in Tests.

Harry Brook, England’s man of the moment, was just 14 years old when Williamson made his Yorkshire debut, but it was Brook who did for the old maestro at the Basin Reserve when he induced a leg-side tickle through to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, just when the tourists’ need was at its greatest.

Brook’s first Test wicket with his lesser-spotted military medium was followed by a run-out and three more victims for spinner Jack Leach, who finished with 5-157 from 61.3 overs as the Kiwis stumbled from 455-5.

Williamson’s hundred thus flirted with the realms of heroic failure, but this was a day when even the proverbial team man deserved to bask in the glare of the spotlight.

Although one queried a decade ago whether ‘Kane’ would prove ‘able’, one man who never had doubts was the late Martin Crowe.

It was around that time that Crowe, New Zealand’s greatest batsman pre-Williamson, predicted that the youngster would go on to become his country’s crème de la crème, a mantle which Williamson wore lightly.

Although statistics are an indication of greatness as opposed to a definitive barometer, few would quibble with Williamson’s place in New Zealand’s pantheon.

He has been, and continues to be, an outstanding ambassador for cricket and his country.