How high can Kane Williamson take his astonishing batting tallies?

Already, the maestro batsman who grew up and learnt his craft in the cricketing nurseries of Tauranga's Pillans Point School, Otumoetai Intermediate and Tauranga Boys' College, is the fourth-highest total run-scorer ever for New Zealand in all three forms of international cricket, with over 12,300 runs.

The eye-catching thing, though, is the three icons he is only around 3000 runs behind, and fast catching up to. Ross Taylor, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum took well over 400 innings to reach their totals, but Kane has needed under 300.

As hard as it is to believe, the 28-year-old has been around the international scene for eight years now. What's equally astonishing is that he's reached such lofty statistical heights in a relatively short time.

Assuming he keeps playing until the age of 35 – and he could well stick around a good deal longer than that – at his current average rate of 1540 runs per year in all formats, he could add another 11,000 to his tally, taking him to over 23,000.

In test matches he scores hundreds at rate of 2.4 per year, so he could add another 17 in the next seven years, taking him to an unbelievable 36.

When you add in the other two formats he has a total of 30 centuries, so at a rate of 3.75 per year another 26 could be coming his way over the next seven years, taking him to a tally of 56.

And there's every chance he could improve his success rate and take those figures beyond that as the years roll on and his skills improve further.

It would be foolish to say we're never going to produce another Kane Williamson, but he certainly is setting a high bar for any challenging successor to reach.