Kyle Jamieson awarded player of the match in WTC Final against India in England.
India will play a two-match Test series against New Zealand starting next week and New Zealand’s key pace bowling weapon Kyle Jamieson may pose the biggest challenge for India in the series.
Jamieson made fantastic debut against India in 2020
Jamieson has been a new sensation in Test cricket since his debut series against India. The pacer with his great height had become the nemesis of Indian batters on their New Zealand tour of 2020. He dismissed nine Indian batters in two Test matches in that series with a phenomenal bowling average of 16.33.
Jamieson bagged a wicket every 38 balls in the series. Even if his colleagues Tim Southee and Trent Boult took more wickets than Jamieson, the tall pacer caught the eyes of cricket pundits with his threatening swing bowling. Jamieson took one five-wicket haul and one four-wicket haul in that two-match Test series, which was a great success for a debutant considering that he was the fourth bowling option throughout the series.
Jamieson capitalised on the success in his debut series to take many wickets in the next four Test series too. The speedster has scalped a total of 46 wickets in an eight-match Test career so far, which means he has got around six wickets per Test. This can be considered a huge feat for any experienced bowler also. His bowing average reads 14.17, which indicates that he is a huge threat to Test batters.
Jamieson got Player of the Series awards in the next two Test series against West Indies and Pakistan. Thus, he has become a key weapon in the Kiwi pace bowling arsenal.
Wrecker-in-chief in WTC Final
Jamieson wreaked havoc on India’s batters in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2021 and bagged seven wickets. He won the Player of the Match award for his match-winning spell in Southampton. Due to his match-winning spell, New Zealand managed to clinch the first World Test Championship Trophy.
Jamieson has an impressive skill-set as pacer
Jamieson’s success at the Test level is due to his repertoire of skills in pace bowling. Jamieson has a great height of 2.03 m which helps him to get high bounce off the pitch. Also, he bowls 145+ kph consistently and swings the ball both ways. These constitute a significant skill-set for a pace bowler even at the international level.
Also, his higher release point than standard pace bowers make him very difficult to pick for batters. Batters find it tough to adjust with his high release point at his pace, also they have to adjust with the high bounce he gets due to his height. So, Jamieson has become a nemesis for batters in current times. However, it will be interesting to see how Jamieson will adjust to Indian sub-continent pitches to counter India’s batters.
Also, Jamieson is a handy batter. He has averaged 42.66 in his Test career. However, he has got very few chances to prove his mettle as a batter in Test matches.
Jamieson has got 32.6 per cent of his wickets caught behind
Out of his 46 Test wickets, he got 15 wickets behind the stumps, edged and caught by wicketkeeper, which make around 32.6 per cent of his wickets. This indicates that he threatens batters with his two-way swing bowling by inducing edges off the bat. Also, the right-handed seamer got 18 dismissals caught by fielders, which is 39.13 per cent of total Test dismissals effected by Jamieson.
Mode of dismissal off Kyle Jamieson bowling in Test Cricket
Indian batters (1-7) dismissed y Kyle Jamieson in Test Cricket
Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara dismissed by Jamieson three times each in Tests
As we can gauge from the above chart, Jamieson dismissed India’s veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara three times in Test cricket. Also, the 26-year-old pacer sent back India skipper Virat Kohli, who is regarded as one of the greatest batters of the current generation, to the pavilion thrice in Test cricket. The pacer has dismissed wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant twice in his career. Also, he bagged wickets of Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari and Prithvi Shaw once each in Test matches.
Asian Pitches – A test for Jamieson
Even if Jamieson has great numbers at the start of his career, it is also true that he hasn’t played a single Test on the Indian sub-continent pitches till now. Also, the sample space of eight Test matches is low to conclude anything about his Test career.
So, it will be a monumental challenge in front of Jamieson to trap Indian batters in his swing web on dry sub-continent pitches. Also, Indian batters like Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have to play him cautiously to succeed in this upcoming Test series at home.
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