Anshul Kamboj and Gurnoor Brar impressed during India’s ODI against New Zealand on November 4. Kamboj bowled tight spells, while Brar used his height to trouble batters. Their performance showed a new vision for the team. Both bowlers got much-needed confidence after struggling in their earlier matches against West Indies.
Anshul Kamboj could have been forgiven for feeling a little odd after sending down six consecutive deliveries to Tim Seifert in the eighth over of the first ODI without any retaliation. Six balls, zero runs. A couple were hit straight back to the bowler, where he snuck in a stare back at the batter, while the rest went to fielders in the ring. Who knew a white ball in 2026 could be this empowering at this level? Not Kamboj, at least, if he thinks back to his ODI debut.
It's all about perspective: Kamboj made the long journey from Puducherry to New Chandigarh as Prasidh Krishna's replacement, and went straight into the XI on October 3. There he conceded 82 without a wicket in his 9 overs vs West Indies. If you look a little further, you'll find that in his first 10 deliveries, West Indies had taken 23 runs - through fours, wides and leg byes. That's one more than how much he conceded in 10 overs in Auckland on Wednesday (November 4).
The feeling of oddity, if at all, should soon have given way to delight as the Eden Park surface offered consistent assistance through his stirring opening spell. MS Dhoni had once said that deliveries from Kamboj often hit the bat quicker than a batter anticipates. It was the same kind of deception that perhaps tied down the likes of Seifert and Daryl Mitchell, even as the speed gun showed Kamboj operating in the late 130s.
He went for eight runs in his first four overs, setting Gurnoor Brar up to take advantage of bowling in tandem with him. The drinks break after 14 overs, with New Zealand having meandered to 71/2, marked the starting point of India's complete control of the fixture. Brar brought complementary skills from the other end to Kamboj: bowling a few kilometres faster and using his tall frame to dig the ball into the surface. On the second ball of the 15th over, he did just that and induced a false shot from Seifert.
Brar, too, arrived in New Zealand with little experience and some lingering nightmares from the home series against West Indies, where he was tonked for 96 runs in 10 overs in the second ODI. But there was little that a friendly surface couldn't help him turn around. It gave Brar the motivation to bend his back harder in search of extra pace and bounce, while also adding a spring to his step. That came through in his reflexes in his second over, when he held a sharp catch off his own bowling to dismiss Tom Latham.
New Zealand were equally culpable for their batting collapse, but Gautam Gambhir will be chuffed to bits that two of his inexperienced pace options came through at different stages of the game, each bringing a different skillset to the table. It became quite the medley between Kamboj and Brar, as they combined to bowl 19.2 overs, conceding just 66 runs for five wickets.
Kamboj's first spell was dry and wicketless, but he returned to reap the rewards, pushing New Zealand further towards the brink with the wickets of Mitchell Santner and Nathan Smith. More crucially, his evening was defined by how incredibly accurate and frugal he was with his length and back-of-a-length deliveries.
Brar meanwhile, showed Gambhir that he could be a trustworthy middle-overs operator, offering India greater flexibility with their combinations should South Africa present similar seaming conditions at next year's World Cup. It is, of course, still early days, but if a four-pronged pace attack is the plan, with two of those spots likely occupied by Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, this game could well serve as one of the many auditions Brar will have to go through to convince the think tank. He might not have been as economical as Kamboj, but he too found ways to make the most of the surface, his short-pitched bowling earning two wickets.
In the end, India took a 1-0 lead, with Virat Kohli unfurling a tale as old as time by helming another run chase. But, as Gambhir said rather passionately after the T20I series, any credit for ODI success in away conditions like these, with the squad they've got, should belong to the bowlers.
Over the next two weeks, New Zealand will wise up and look to tackle Kamboj and Brar better. The Indian duo could soon find themselves in situations where their inexperience will be put to the sword. How well they respond to those challenges will go a long way towards determining where they stand in the pecking order.