Kane Williamson breaks another test cricket record

RECORD BREAKER: Tauranga's Kane Williamson has become the youngest player to score a hundred against all test playing nations. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES 090816sp19BOP

Kane Williamson turned 26 on Monday and celebrated by setting yet another international cricket record.

In scoring 113 against Zimbabwe the Tauranga local became the 13th and youngest player to score a century against all other test playing nations.

He was also the quickest to achieve the feat, taking 91 innings with Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara next with 114 innings.

Former Black Cap and Tauranga resident Chris Pringle says this is just another stepping stone in Williamson's greatness.

"The thing that is quite scary is the fact that he has only played six or seven years of international cricket and he has got 10 to go," Pringle said.

"He is only going to get better and he has 14 hundreds already. How many is going to get? 35 or 40?"

Williamson's century on Sunday took his test average to 50.48 in his 50th test match, a phenomenal achievement after he struggled to average more than 30 in the early stages of his career. The late Martin Crowe averaged 45.36 with 17 test hundreds.

But Pringle was surprised to see Williamson has made a change to his batting technique with a pronounced trigger movement across his crease before the ball is bowled to him.

"It is something he never did. He stood still and I suppose the hallmark of his batting was that he was so still,'" Pringle said.

"He is that good that he can probably make a movement like that and it will become second nature and work for him.

"The risk is your head falls over to the off-side and your shoulders open out at impact because you are not still. It is designed to get yourself moving and in line with the ball but if you miss the straight ball you are dead plumb in front.

"He will probably master that technique in no time and muscle memory it but it is certainly not the very still Kane Williamson we are used to."

The series in Zimbabwe is the first test series Williamson has captained New Zealand.

It is the precursor to two far more challenging test matches to come in South Africa this month.

Pringle says it will be interesting how his captaincy evolves over the next 12 months.

"You can see the changes and how they're not playing that aggressive, swashbuckling brand of cricket like they were under Brendon McCullum.

"They are playing the more traditional test match style of batting long periods, score at three an over, bowl tight, look to contain to take wickets.

"It is a bit of the old way New Zealand used to play and I think it is probably not a bad move with Kane there.

"It gives us more opportunities to find weaknesses in opposition going that way as well against the likes of Australia and other countries who like to get on with it and try and push the game forward to get a result quicker."

Factbox
Kane Williamson centuries v test playing nations
131 v India at Ahmedabad [on debut], Nov 2010
102* v South Africa at Wellington, March 2012
135 v Sri Lanka at Colombo, Nov 2012
114 v Bangladesh at Chittagong, Oct 2013
113 v West Indies at Kingston, June 2014
192 v Pakistan at Sharjah, Nov 2014
132 v England at Lord's, May 2015
140 v Australia at Brisbane, Nov 2015
113 v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, Aug 2016