Cricket: In the swing at the counties

At 20 years of age, Kane Williamson appeared in his first match for Gloucestershire last month. Photo / Getty Images

Kane Williamson has begun a rite of passage taken by some of New Zealand's best past cricketers.

Regular county cricket brought professionalism to the Kiwi game in the 1980s through names such as Glenn Turner, Sir Richard Hadlee, John Wright and Martin Crowe; continued in the late 1990s and early 2000s by the likes of Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle.

Williamson - still more than two months shy of his 21st birthday - appeared in his first match for Gloucestershire on May 2, giving him 80 playing days and sometimes six-day cricketing weeks to test his skills.

The Herald on Sunday spoke to Williamson towards the end of a six-day stint and found him brimming with ambition. Sure, he has only been at his new job for a month and a truer test could come when he makes a duck and is stationed at long-on for a couple of days in the teeth of a chilling northerly.

For now, he has three objectives. First, perfect his technique in English conditions as a reliable top order batsman against the swinging ball; second, expel the myth he does not score his runs quickly enough; and third, harden up to the daily grind of cricket.

Williamson is getting ample opportunity to adjust to greener English pitches against a ball that swings more.

Gloucestershire's place in the second division of the four-day championship means they play with a Tiflex ball rather than the traditional Duke.

The Tiflex has been described as capable of swinging around corners. Williamson has noticed that, but after two ducks and two starts, he made 149 against Leicestershire.

"The Tiflex tests your technique - it feels like you're playing a two-piece rather than a four-piece ball sometimes. But you get used to it. I had to adjust my game to play the ball as late as possible."

With Williamson's current average at 38.71 from seven innings batting at three or four, coach John Bracewell has a contender to fill a hole in his top order, provided that average boosts into the 40s. That's what Williamson wants too, so he can eventually be a credible choice for the same role in tests.

Williamson knows this stint is also a chance to end the theory he cannot score quickly. In two Twenty20 matches, he has scored 52 runs at a strike rate of 127 but has struggled in four 40-over innings, averaging 32.25 with a strike rate of 64. However, Williamson showed glimpses batting down the order at the World Cup against Canada and South Africa that he can work the ball well off his pads and in the 'V' with traditional cricket strokes when quick runs are required.

"Quick runs are important but you need to make them in a way that suits your game," Williamson says. "I need to find my niche in the one-day game. At this stage, I think it involves coming in late and being adaptable, but not swinging from the hip."

That sort of level head will come in handy over a long season as his Gloucestershire team-mate and former Black Cap Hamish Marshall explains: "It can be a grind at times. You've got to play when you're tired and when you've got little niggles. You also have to make the mental adjustment, raising and lowering the tempo when you play different formats."

Marshall has now been with Gloucestershire since 2006 and recently qualified to play for Ireland after a four-year stand down. He says Williamson needs to get into the rhythm of the county circuit.

"You're in the car a lot, driving to and from matches overnight. There's not too much flying like in New Zealand. If you get the chance to travel the day before a four-dayer, you might stop off at a golf course on the way to stretch your legs. Often we have team dinners to keep up the spirit.

"Someone picks a restaurant and they get judged on it by their team-mates. I also get a gauge for what the young fellas are like by letting them choose the music in the car."

Williamson has survived so far. He assumed the DJ duties returning home after the loss to Surrey at the Oval the other night and has yet to be blacklisted.