IND vs NZ: Kyle Jamieson reaps reward for discipline, sends Mayank Agarwal packing early

New Zealand’s tall pacer Kyle Jamieson was rewarded for his disciplined bowling early on against India in the Kanpur Test when he had Mayank Agarwal, the comeback man, edging him behind to keeper Tom Blundell on the first morning.

Jamieson delivered a probing first spell, sticking to the age-old ploy of delivering consistently outside the off-stump even as the new SG ball did not offer too much movement off either the abrasive surface or in the air.

Agarwal, who was playing his first Test after the historic Brisbane encounter during the 2020-21 Broder Gavaskar Trophy, looked a tad tentative right from the onset, lacking conviction in his feet movement, and the ball going closely past his outside edge a few times previously.

After those close shaves, the eighth over turned out to be the time of his undoing, as Jamieson once again delivered in the fourth stump channel, successfully cajoling Agarwal to poke at it, as the ball shaped marginally away and took his edge on the route behind to Blundell.

New Zealand could have also had his partner Shubman Gill, who hit on the pads rather plumb by Ajaz Patel, only for none of the Kiwi players to appeal. The Hawkeye later showed the ball crashing into middle and leg stumps. Gill rode on the luck to notch up his fourth Test half-century, and even took on Patel later, charging against him for to pick a maximum down the ground before another boundary in the same 17th over, with Cheteshwar Pujara at the other end.

India hand debut to Shreyas Iyer, New Zealand to Rachin Ravindra 

Earlier in the day, Shreyas Iyer became the 303rd men’s Test player for India, as he received his maiden cap from Sunil Gavaskar, while New Zealand handed spin all-rounder Rachin Ravindra his debut cap.

Iyer, who made his international debut in 2017, has represented India in 54 limited-over games, scoring 580 ODI runs at 27.61 and 813 T20I runs at 42.78, while he is a veteran of 54 First-Class matches, having amassed 4592 runs at an impressive 52.18, including 12 centuries and 23 half-centuries.

Ravindra, on the other hand, who made his international debut against Bangladesh earlier this year, and has played six T20Is ever since, averages 38.90 with the bat in 28 First-Class matches, while he has picked 25 wickets with his left-arm spin.