There are two woods on the rack and one of them costs three times the other. That gap is the whole beginner's dilemma, and most of the advice around it is wrong. Grain count is not a grade of talent. A twelve-grain blade in the wrong hands is a liability, not an upgrade.
Kashmir willow is denser, harder and more forgiving of neglect. It arrives ready to play, tolerates a damp shed and a skipped knock-in, and rewards a learner who is still finding the middle. What it will not do is ping. The ball comes off honestly rather than explosively, and that is exactly what a developing batter should be feeling.
English willow is lighter for its size, softer in the fibre, and alive off the face once it is pressed and knocked in properly. It is also fragile in the way anything high-performance is fragile. A grade-4 English cleft with five grains and a bit of blemish will out-perform a flawless Kashmir bat and out-live a badly-treated one — but only if you put in the mallet hours.
So the honest answer is about the player, not the wood. If this is a first or second season, buy Kashmir and spend the saved money on pads that fit. If you are middling the ball cleanly and the bat is holding you back, step up to entry English willow and commit to knocking it in. Skip the twelve-grain showpiece until your bat is the best thing in your kit bag — which, for most of us, is later than the shop would like.