India vs New Zealand: Southee and I bowled pretty well, says Jamieson
The New Zealand seamer says he didn’t change his game too much to suit the conditions, but just made slight adjustments.
Published : Nov 25, 2021 21:26 IST
Kyle Jamieson was New Zealand’s star on Day One of the first Test here as he dismissed three of India’s top batters for not too many. This was his first Test in India, in unfamiliar conditions – certainly for the longest format of the game – but he bowled as if he knew the track like the back of his hand.
Jamieson revealed after the day’s play that he was just looking to adjust his game a little bit to suit the conditions on offer. Commenting on the bowling performance of his team’s pace attack in dusty Kanpur, Jamieson said, “I thought we were pretty good. Certainly, we had our discussions before the game and we were lucky to find some movement early on and it was a bit more familiar to us. So we fell back on that.”
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Jamieson was pleased to play Test cricket after a bit of a gap – he sat out most of the second leg of the IPL and the T20 World Cup. “It was certainly nice to get back out there. It was probably a good thing not having the game time. I have every chance to step back and actually work on [my game] so at the end of a long year, when you actually have the chance to take a step back it’s quite pleasing and it’s nice to be back on the park playing Test cricket,” he said.
Bowling for the first time in a Test match in India didn’t faze him partly because he was familiar with the country because of his stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first leg of IPL.
“Through the IPL, I’ve experienced India as a whole, so it wasn’t a shock to the system,” he quipped.
It’s all about reading the conditions: Gill
Shubman Gill, who scored a half-century, his fourth in Test cricket, praised Jamieson for his bowling performance. “I think he bowled pretty well today, especially in the first hour when he bowled with the new ball. He bowled in good areas to me and Mayank, especially when I came in to bat after lunch. Definitely that over was top notch, and especially the whole spell that he bowled, he looked in really good rhythm,” he said.
Commenting on the ball from Jamieson that got him out, Gill said, “It’s all about reading the conditions. Sometimes it’s difficult to know when the ball starts to reverse swing. And especially after lunch, I didn’t expect the ball to reverse swing that early in the game, but that’s the thing about Test cricket, you have to read the conditions really fast, and in this particular innings I was not able to read the ball that well because I wasn’t expecting the ball the reverse swing.”
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Excited to play Test cricket after a long break of three months, Gill said he was also happy to now work with the new head coach Rahul Dravid.
“It feels great when you’ve already played under someone in your age-group cricket and in senior cricket as well. It does make a difference because you have that kind of a bond with that person already.”