Mr Williamson sits on his sofa at home in Tauranga, in New Zealand’s North Island, trying to watch the television, circa 1993.

“Dad,” says a three year-old boy, holding a cricket bat as usual.

“Yes, son. What is it?”

“Please bowl to me, dad.”

“Alright, Kane, give me the ball.” The boy has a twin brother, Logan, who is not really interested in cricket, and three elder sisters, but they do not play at all. So it has to be Mr Williamson who lobs a soft ball which the child prodigy carefully hits around the living-room.

Around the world three other boys of almost the same age are likewise programming the synapses of their brains to pick up the trajectory and pace of a ball quicker than their contemporaries. The boy in Sheffield is called Joe, the one in Delhi called Virat, the one in Sydney called Steve. One of these four, in 18 months from now, will probably be crowned the world’s best batsman in succession to AB de Villiers.

Virat Kohli is aged 29, Steve Smith 28, a bit further down the track as batsmen and Test captains than Joe Root and Kane Williamson, who are 27. Williamson could be rated the outsider, partly because he bats at number three while the others prefer the softer option of four. But this race is no sprint; and Williamson is the calmest of the four personalities, perhaps partly because he lives in a country where cricket plays third fiddle to rugby, so he faces fewer media and public pressures than the other three. He is also the only New Zealander ever to have a Test average of 50 so he already has a proven technique when the ball moves sideways. Playing on flatter pitches, Smith averages 62 in Tests and Kohli 53, the same as Root.