Movement makes it tough to face Kyle Jamieson, not just height

During the England-New Zealand Test series, commentators Rob Key and Michael Atherton discussed how height helps Kyle Jamieson extract stiff bounce from the surface. It was an obvious but correct assessment, that such tall stature and incredibly high release points would ensure the bowler finds more spongy and disconcerting bounce from the track. Batsmen aren’t […]
 By Kashish Chadha Jun 24, 2021, 22:01 IST
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Movement makes it tough to face Kyle Jamieson, not just height

During the England-New Zealand Test series, commentators Rob Key and Michael Atherton discussed how height helps Kyle Jamieson extract stiff bounce from the surface.

It was an obvious but correct assessment, that such tall stature and incredibly high release points would ensure the bowler finds more spongy and disconcerting bounce from the track.

Batsmen aren’t used to facing bowlers with such abnormal height and expectedly find it difficult to counter when they come across one. That is because height doesn’t just aid bounce, it also blurs the whole process of a batsman gauging the length from the bowler’s release points.

The higher you have to look, the further the time you spend on rolling your eyes down with the ball and not in reacting to where it pitches.

Movement makes it tough to face Kyle Jamieson, not just height

Kyle Jamieson

Batsmen are often caught off guard with regards to their footwork against bowlers like Kyle Jamieson, as they end up misjudging the length of the ball – it’s tough, from that height to quickly and correctly anticipate where it would pitch – and are likely driving a ball that isn’t really full enough or cutting a ball that gets too big on them.

Movement makes it tough to face Kyle Jamieson, not just height

Tweet below backs this age-old belief well. It also shows that as far as match-ups go, Kyle Jamieson was perhaps the toughest for India heading into Southampton.

Movement makes it tough to face Kyle Jamieson, not just height

Jamieson has had an unprecedently good start to his Test career, with 44 wickets at a jaw-dropping 14.14 with an economy rate of just 2.37. Nobody has taken more five-fers than Jamieson’s 5 from just 15 innings in this cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC).

It came as no surprise that Jamieson was the most threatening of the bowlers for Indian batsmen in Hampshire and ended with a potentially game-defining spell of 5/31.

But, it isn’t just the height that has made Kyle Jamieson such a difficult bowler to face for Test batsmen, it’s the movement that has accentuated their troubles. In play, when you’re facing Jamieson, isn’t just the prospect of those steep release points, but also the movement that Jamieson generates. And it isn’t as much in the air, as it is off the surface – a significantly tougher thing to handle for batsmen.

At Jamieson’s height, you’re already unsure of the length and are late in reacting to the ball. To add to your problems, he is extracting alarming amount of movement. And you could’ve at least find it easier if it was happening in the air alone. Here, he is getting it out of the track, leaving you next to no time for any late adjustments.

Perhaps, the dismissal of Virat Kohli summed it up well. Even if resuming his innings after a night’s break, you’d expect the great Indian captain to be switched on and watching the ball well after having made an unbeaten 44. But here he was, with his weight hanging back – an obvious effect of Kyle Jamieson’s height – nearly covering the line well for this rare full one, only to be out LBW as it changed its direction upon pitching. Had the ball gone straight, Virat had it covered. It didn’t. He was gone.

In many ways, Jamieson is a perfectly-built weapon up New Zealand’s sleeves. At a time when they already have the swing and seam of Boult, Southee and the awkward bounce and disintegration that Neil Wagner causes, Jamieson’s inclusion closes out all possible openings for the opposition.

He is tall, accurate, generate swing and seam, and has a smart brain up his shoulders – reflected in how he looks to vary the angle of release through the crease and forces, as he did to Rohit, batsmen to play at incorrect lines.

Thus, solely putting Kyle Jamieson’s remarkable beginning down to the height would be downplaying the impact of other important factors, with seam movement being the most damaging of the lot.

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