Anshul Kamboj led India’s pace attack as they bowled New Zealand out for 185 in Auckland. The young bowler showed great control on a quick track, taking key wickets with a calm head. His performance helped India stamp their authority after the team chose to bowl first at Eden Park.
The Haryana paceman’s Test debut in Manchester in July last year was courtesy a split webbing at a training session which ruled Arshdeep Singh out of selection for the fourth game against England. Rushed from India just a couple of days before the game, his nervousness manifested itself in unflattering figures of one for 89 in 18 overs in England’s only innings. Kamboj was way off pace and all over the place, and was promptly taken apart in his opening spell by Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, a mauling from which he never recovered.
Last month, the 25-year-old played his first ODI in dramatic fashion, pulled out of an India ‘A’ match against Australia in Puducherry after Prasidh Krishna did his hamstring and thrust into the hot seat against Shai Hope’s men in dead rubber in New Chandigarh with India already holding a winning 2-0 lead. The end result -- none for 82 from nine overs in a five-wicket drubbing.
Kamboj must have been desperate for redemption; that came in some style in Auckland as he combined with an equally inexperienced pace trio to send New Zealand crashing to 185 all out, a complete contrast to the tall edifices the home batters erected during the preceding Twenty20 International series.
India’s four-pronged pace attack of Arshdeep (18 ODIs), Gurnoor Brar (9), Kamboj and Auqib Nabi (one each) boasted a grand total of 29 50-over international appearances coming into the Eden Park showdown. One would have never guessed, given the control with which they went about their business and refusing to get carried away by the assistance that was on offer for them for the first time on this tour.
There wasn’t prodigious seam movement, but whatever the ball did off the surface was just about enough to sow seeds of doubt in the batters’ mind. On a quickish track with not inconsiderable bounce, the primary danger was the quick bowlers getting carried away.
No one illustrated the virtues of a calm head and sticking to the basics better than Kamboj, introduced as first-change in the eighth over and driving India to stamp their authority with two wonderful five-over bursts marked by a wicket-to-wicket line, an unhittable length and the intelligence to allow the pitch to play its part without trying too hard to extract life out of it.
Arshdeep and Nabi had made a tidy enough start after Shubman Gill chose to chase, the former also accounting for Will Young, when the captain brought Kamboj on for the eighth over. Immediately, it was clear that Kamboj was better off for the role-clarity he has been provided in the last few days since joining the senior team after playing in the first unofficial ‘Test’ against New Zealand ‘A’ in Lincoln.
In the immediacy of his unforgettable debut in England, Kamboj wasn’t left to wallow in isolation. The core decision-making group communicated effectively, outlining that he continued to remain in their plans and enlightening him about the areas in which they needed him to get better, including adding a little bit of pace.
Emboldened by the show of confidence, Kamboj worked hard in the anonymity of unglamourous training sessions at following those instructions. After arriving in Auckland from Lincoln on October 31, he had two meaningful net sessions in which he had long bowls to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and by match-morning, he was in his elements, confident that he had left nothing to chance with his preparations.
It’s not always that attention to detail translates to returns, but Kamboj found commensurate reward for craft and control immediately. His first over was an impeccable maiden to the attack-minded Tim Seifert; he backed it up by going past the outside edge of mainly Seifert and occasionally Daryl Mitchell, desperately unlucky to finish wicketless in a first burst of 5-1-12-0.
The W column started to fill up when Gill brought him back in the 25th over with the Kiwis gasping at 113 for five. With his first delivery, Kamboj forced New Zealand captain Santner to play on and in his next over, he had Nathan Smith expertly caught by a diving Virat Kohli at second slip.
Finally, for all the toil and the preceding heartbreak, Kamboj found a modicum of justice. 10-2-22-2 represented an excellent night’s work; it was also the catalyst for a rousing display of pace bowling from a rookie bunch that only wavered a touch at the end when No. 11 Blair Tickner started swinging for the skies.