‘The perfect storm’: Kyle
There were few hints as to what Kyle Jamieson was capable of, but as a Black Cap, he’s taken the cricketing world by storm, writes Andrew Voerman
KYLE Jamieson took the cricketing world by storm in 2020, but it took somewhat of a perfect storm for that to happen.
As recently as the end of 2019, when the Black Caps hosted England, then made their way to Australia, the 2.03m-tall Aucklander wasn’t on most people’s radar as far as international selection was concerned.
He had seemingly begun that year in fine fashion, taking six wickets for seven runs in a Twenty20 for the Canterbury Kings against the Auckland Aces, but he would later reveal on a
podcast with mental skills coach Aaron Walsh that he ‘‘was completely flat that day’’.
‘‘I had this supposed high of taking all those wickets, but I couldn’t care less. I was so flat with the environment that I was in and the mental space that I was putting myself in, due to a number of factors, and I wasn’t enjoying cricket and I wasn’t going down the path I wanted to go down in terms of my career.’’
That haul at Eden Park Outer Oval was the third time Jamieson had made headlines in his cricket career. The second was in March 2018, when he scored 101 off 111 balls for a New Zealand XI against the touring England side, hinting at his all-round potential. The first was in 2016, during his fourth season with Canterbury, when he took 8-74 against the Central Stags in the Plunket Shield.
He played for New Zealand A for the first time at the end of 2018, on a tour of the United Arab Emirates, so he was definitely in the system. But after seeking a change of environment and moving back home in the middle of 2019, where he came under the tutelage of new Aces coach Heinrich Malan, Jamieson was finding it hard to reap any rewards – at least in the form of wickets, the currency on which bowlers’ fortunes rise and fall.
There had been four in two matches for the Aces in the Plunket Shield, then another for New Zealand A against England, then five more in six matches for the Aces in the Ford Trophy.
The sample size was small, but he was averaging 35 in first-class cricket and 52 in one-day cricket that season and there was no hint of what was about to happen.
Then came Lockie Ferguson’s calf injury during the first test in Perth, which only happened because Trent Boult had suffered a rib injury, opening the door for the speedster to finally make his debut, and all of a sudden the Black Caps had to call up their sixth-choice seamer. Jamieson went to Australia, batted in a two-day match, then spent the Boxing Day and New Year’s tests helping perform 12th man duties. He also paid close attention to what the Australian seamers were doing, in particular
how they were using the crease to great effect.
Malan rattled off a list of players – Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Will Young – who have made their Black Caps’ debuts in the last 18 months. ‘‘Once they’ve been up there once, they come back into domestic cricket, and they look like totally different players. They still do exactly what they’ve done, but they do it with different conviction.’’
Jamieson might not have played in Australia, but he was bitten by the same bug. ‘‘All of a sudden, even though he hadn’t played, he believed that his skills and what he brings to the table were better than what he competes with at that domestic level on a day-today basis.’’
His first match back in New Zealand was for the Aces in the Super Smash against the Northern Knights on January 10 last year. They lost, but he took three wickets, and he’s been amongst them ever since. Five more followed in his next three T20s, then there were six for New Zealand A against India A across three one-dayers, including a haul of 4-49, and four in two as the
Ford Trophy resumed.
The seam trio that served the Black Caps so well at the 2019 Cricket World Cup – Boult, Ferguson, and Matt Henry – were all injured, so Jamieson joined Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett and Scott Kuggeleijn in the squad to face India, and when Kuggeleijn fell ill ahead of the series’ second match in Auckland, his place in the starting XI was confirmed.
He hit 25 off 24 balls with the bat at No 10, supporting Ross Taylor as he helped the Black Caps post a competitive total, then took 2-42 as they completed a 22-run win. ‘‘You grow up dreaming of these moments,’’ he said afterwards in the bowels of Eden Park. ‘‘To get your first cap and to make an impact.’’
Another ODI followed, then, with Ferguson working his way back from injury in the Plunket Shield, he got the nod ahead of Matt Henry in the test squad to face India. When Neil Wagner went home for the birth of his first child, he found himself standing on the field at the Basin Reserve listening to the national anthem, then went on to take 4-39 and score 44. In the second test at Hagley Oval, he retained his place in a four-pronged attack and took 5-45 and scored 49.
A star was born, as they say, but Jamieson wasn’t yet an automatic pick across all formats. The Black Caps went back to Australia for three ODIs and he was in the squad, but didn’t feature as they lost the series opener, the only match played before the Covid-19 pandemic put the sporting world on pause.
Once New Zealand’s lockdown ended at the start of June, his work started anew. ‘‘Throughout the winter,’’ Malan said, ‘‘he had a massive drive to understand that this was potentially going to be his second year playing a bit of international cricket – he wasn’t thinking he was going to play every game – so for us it was about saying, ‘right, how are we going to make sure that you keep getting better?’’’
‘‘We had a real purpose around every training, whether it was S&C or whether it was the bowling side of things – nailing the action from a consistency and a fundamentals perspective, then nailing the skills over the top of that.
‘‘We had a couple of preseason games and the intensity that he brought to those pre-season games opened up the eyes of some of my other bowlers, who were pretty much in their first seasons as first-class cricketers.
‘‘Things get taken to a next level when your international players come back, and they exuberate the understanding of what it’s like at that level on a daily basis, and that’s probably the piece that I enjoyed most around KJ this winter.
‘‘He knew that he would get opportunities, but they were probably going to be far and few between, then he was doing all the work in the winter and hit the season running, like no-one else in the country, and it’s paid off – he’s played every game and now we can look back and say, wow, what a season it’s been, and hopefully it’s not the end of it, it’s only the start.
‘‘He’s got the tools to be successful at that level, with the height, with the speed, with the understanding of what he puts behind the ball, so I think if you add all of that together, it’s almost been a bit of a perfect storm.’’
Jamieson was the star of the show as the summer started with the Plunket Shield, taking a five-wicket bag in each of the three matches he played and 20 wickets in total. In the middle of that run, he took a first-class hat-trick against the Central Stags, completing it by bowling Brad Schmulian with a delivery that pitched well outside off, drawing a leave, then came back and clipped the top of off stump.
He made his Twenty20 international debut against the West Indies, but that was just an entre´ e for the test matches that followed. He took four wickets against them in Hamilton and seven in Wellington – narrowly missing out on another hattrick – then five against Pakistan at Mount Maunganui – including a vital breakthrough after tea on the final day, where he bowled nine overs straight – and 11 in Christchurch – a five-wicket haul in the first innings and a six-wicket haul in the second.
Jamieson finished the test summer with 27 wickets at an average of 12.25 and a strike rate of 31.8, having played a big hand in the Black Caps’ rise to No 1 on the world rankings and their continued quest for a place in the World Test Championship final. The potential seen in him by former Black Cap Dayle Hadlee, who had encouraged him to work more on his bowling when he first arrived in Christchurch as batting all-rounder in 2013, had been realised.
There is plenty of cricket ahead for the man who turned 26 at the end of last year. He will surely be tempted by the Indian Premier League, whether in the next few weeks or at some stage down the track. He is yet to play outside New Zealand, where he will face tougher tests than he has so far.
But he insists he is the fourth prong in the Black Caps’ test attack, behind Boult, Southee, and Wagner. He has made great strides mentally, physically, and technically over the past two years, but says he’s a long way off being the cricketer he wants to be. When he returned to Auckland in the middle of 2019, he felt he was 18 to 24 months away from making the Black Caps, but 18 months on, he’s already one of the hottest properties in world cricket.
What makes Jamieson’s rise remarkable is the fact that he might well have still been grinding away on the domestic circuit, if the Black Caps’ pace stocks hadn’t been hit by injuries for the first time in a long time last summer. He hadn’t been taking bags of wickets to force his way in, like Ferguson had, or scoring mountains of runs, the batting equivalent, like Will Young and Devon Conway – the latter being the perfect example of someone still waiting for a break – but as Malan noted, it’s about processes versus outcomes. ‘‘All you can do on a day-today basis is make sure that you do the work so you are prepared, and once you get that opportunity and stars align, like they have for him, then you’re going to get the results that you get’’.
Black Caps coach Gary Stead notes that Jamieson has a ‘‘thirst for learning, and a thirst for wanting to get better, which are two things that are really important as an international cricketer. He’s never really satisfied with one performance, and he’s always looking to try and get better.
‘‘When you combine that with being a good person and wanting to be a good team person as well, then that makes quite a complete player’’.
Jamieson is due to return to action today for the Aces against the Northern Knights in the Super Smash at Eden Park Outer Oval, the ground where he had those conflicting emotions two years ago. As he explained on Walsh’s podcast, he has ‘‘recognised the importance of having people around you to put you in that right space’’. After he made his international debut last February, he acknowledged NZ Cricket’s mental skills coach, Pete Sanford, as one of them. Walsh is another. So too are Malan and Stead, and probably a few others whose names we don’t know.
‘‘It’s just about keeping him grounded,’’ Stead said. ‘‘We all know he’s got some great attributes and great skills. Who knows, the world could be his oyster now with what’s ahead and what’s coming up. He’s one of our boys when he gets together with us . . .’’
‘He’s never really satisfied with one performance, and he’s always looking to try and get better.’ BLACK CAPS COACH GARY STEAD