New Zealand became the world's number one Test team after home series triumph.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has on Wednesday (January 6) heaped praise on the “special talent” Kyle Jamieson after the young fast bowler's Christchurch Test exploits against Pakistan.
The speedster is just six Tests old but making everyone turns heads with his impressive bowling in Test cricket – where he has a total of 36 wickets at an average of 13.27 so far. New Zealand’s latest pace sensation has shown the world his talent in the recent home Test series against Pakistan.
After taking 5 wickets in the first Test, Jamieson picked up 11 wickets (5/69 and 6/48) to ensure a massive win of an innings and 176 runs in the second and final Test against Pakistan, as the hosts clean swept the Test series 2-0 at the Hagley Oval on Wednesday.
In the recent home series, the 26-year-old hasn’t only taken many wickets but also impressed all with his understanding, attitude, and hunger for learning – which impressed his captain Williamson most.
Describing Jamieson as a “special talent”, Williamson said the pacer’s contributions have been immense and complementing the bowling attack really well while praising his bowling against Pakistan.
Williamson said: “His contributions have been immense and have gone a long way to moving this team forward and complementing the bowling attack really well. On this surface with the added bounce and that being a real asset to Kyle, it was great that he was able to extract that and it made life difficult for the batting side.”
He continued, “Kyle is extremely good with the bat and ball, a very, very special talent. I think if he continues to - and I'm sure he will, he's got a great head on his shoulders - bring that great attitude that he has... things have come very thick and fast for Kyle, which is a really enjoyable part of the game, but also something that he's learning a bit about as well and learning about himself.
He's got a real strong desire to improve and pick the brains of some of these other senior guys that have been around for a long time, so he's a humble guy and a player that just wants to continue to get better.”
The skipper was particularly pleased with the attitude shown by Jamieson and Daryl Mitchell, who scored his maiden Test ton in the second Test against Pakistan.
Williamson further noted, “Some younger guys have come in, the likes of Daryl Mitchell and Kyle Jamison, you know, especially in this game where there were some outstanding performances, contributions... But more the attitude that they brought in terms of their performance is most satisfying.
Their efforts that went into just trying to move the team forward, and perhaps get the side across the line, that's really special and something that we do focus on as a team and try to build on as a unit moving forward as well.
Even [Tuesday] night when Trent basically took himself off to bring Kyle on to try and use that new ball while it was hard, and it was great we were able to pick up that wicket. He exploited conditions beautifully; bowled long spells and I can't speak highly enough of the efforts he put in.”
New Zealand has now won six consecutive Tests – their best winning streak ever, which made them World’s No.1 Test side as well as gives them a fair shot at making the World Test Championship final and Williamson was happy with his team’s efforts.
He signed off by saying, “Don't know how the rankings work exactly but I know they span over a period of time, which to achieve that standing means that there's been a lot of hard work over a lot of matches and training and all these sorts of things to reach that, so a very special moment from the guys. It was hard to talk about until the test summer was over so it's nice to be able to sit back now and take a moment and enjoy the moment.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)