WE may never reach consensus over who the best batsman in the world is but right now, but Kane Williamson is the most important player to his team in the world.

Across the last three years, no player has been more responsible for a Test side’s success with the bat than Williamson.

Here are the numbers that prove it.

A QUARTER OF NEW ZEALAND’S RUNS

If Steve Smith fails, Australia can turn to David Warner. If Virat Kohli fails, India can turn to Ajinkya Rahane.

Williamson has a safety net of his own in Ross Taylor but on paper, his form is far more important to New Zealand’s than Smith’s form is to Australia or Kohli’s is to India.

In fact, no country has relied upon one player for runs more than New Zealand has on Williamson.

Williamson has scored 23.46 per cent of the Black Caps’ runs (3011 out of 12,832) in Test cricket over the last three years.

The only other player to have made more than 20 per cent of their team’s runs is surprisingly Hashim Amla (22.90) who shares a batting order with AB de Villiers.

The fact Amla has scored 22.90 per cent of the Proteas’ runs is in part due to de Villiers’ injury troubles over the last year.

Steve Smith (18.82), Joe Root (16.80) and Younis Khan (15.92) round out the top five, with Virat Kohli sixth (15.79).

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Kane Williamson has scored nearly a quarter of New Zealand’s Test runs in the last three years. Source: AFP

This is how each country has relied on its highest Test run-scorer in the last three years:

Country – player — percentage

New Zealand – Kane Williamson – 23.46

South Africa – Hashim Amla – 22.90

Australia – Steve Smith – 18.82

England – Joe Root – 16.80

Pakistan – Younis Khan – 15.92

India – Virat Kohli – 15.79

West Indies – Kraigg Brathwaite – 15.73

Bangladesh – Tamim Iqbal – 15.44

Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews – 13.58

Zimbabwe – Hamilton Masakadza – 12.67

CENTURY MACHINE

Williamson has scored the third most centuries of any player in the last three years. He’s also one of only two players to have scored more than 30 per cent of his side’s hundreds.

Williamson has scored 11 of New Zealand’s 34 centuries over the last three years. That’s 32.35 per cent of the nation’s Test hundreds.

The only man who has contributed a larger percentage of a team’s centuries is Kraigg Brathwaite, who has made five of the West Indies’ 14 tons (35.71 per cent) in the period in question.

This is how each country has relied upon its top Test century scorer:

Country – player – percentage of centuries scored

West Indies – Kraigg Brathwaite – 35.71

New Zealand – Kane Williamson – 32.35

Bangladesh – Tamim Iqbal – 28.57

Australia – Steve Smith – 28

Pakistan – Younis Khan – 27.50

England – Joe Root – 26.47

India – Virat Kohli – 25.64

South Africa – Hashim Amla – 20.69

Zimbabwe – Hamilton Masakadza – 20

Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews – 16.23

THE GAP

Williamson has scored 3011 runs in the last three years. The next highest scoring Kiwi is Tom Latham, with 2031.

That’s a 980-run gap between New Zealand’s first and second highest run-scorers.

This is comfortably the biggest split between a country’s two highest run-scorers. The next biggest gap belongs to India, with Kohli (2702) notching 647 more runs than Ajinkya Rahane (2055). The Indians are closely followed by England, with Root (3639) outscoring Alastair Cook (3010) by 629 runs.

Kane Williamson has scored nearly 1000 more runs than Tom Latham. Source: AFP

Sri Lanka is the only other side with a difference of more than 500 runs between its two highest run-scorers, with Angelo Mathews (2296) 548 runs ahead of Kumar Sangakkara (1748). The fact Sangakkara is second among Sri Lankan run-scorers over the last three years despite retiring in 2015 reflects the transitional period the country has been in since the 2015 World Cup.

Zimbabwe has the smallest gap, with Hamilton Masakadza (502) only six runs ahead of Craig Ervine (496). Pakistan is the only other country with a gap of less than 100 runs between its two highest run-scorers, with Younis (2758) only 63 runs ahead of Azhar Ali (2515).

Below are the gaps between each country’s top two Test run-scorers over the last three years.

Country – highest and second-higher scorer – gap

New Zealand – Kane Williamson and Tom Latham – 980

India – Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane – 647

England – Joe Root and Alastair Cook – 629

Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews and Kumar Sangakkara – 548

West Indies – Kraigg Brathwate and Darren Bravo – 410

Australia – Steve Smith and David Warner – 323

South Africa – Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar – 321

Bangladesh – Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque – 156

Pakistan – Younis Khan and Azhar Ali – 63

Zimbabwe – Hamilton Masakadza and Craig Ervine – 6

New Zealand also has the biggest gap between century makers, with Williamson (11 hundreds) boasting five more hundreds than Latham (six) over the last three years..

England has the next biggest gap, with Root (nine) four ahead of Cook (five).

India, Bangladesh, the West Indies each have two-century gaps between their most prolific century-makers, while Australia and the Proteas have gaps of one.

Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe’s top two century-makers are both level.