Rising Kiwi star Kyle Jamieson has picked up where he left off from last season as a devastating bowler in the Plunket Shield, but Black Caps head coach Gary Stead has warned he could get even deadlier.
In just a handful of overs of the new season, the rising star of New Zealand cricket was back at it for Auckland today, ripping through Otago's top order in a destructive three-wicket spell where at one stage he was on a hat-trick.
Stead told 1 NEWS he was impressed by the effort.
“It's great that's he's just stepped straight in this morning and found his length pretty early. Great start for him.”
However, like Stead says, that could be just the start for the promising 25-year-old giant, with 1 NEWS able to reveal Jamieson is trying to add pace to his game to push for a regular spot in the Black Caps.
“When you're six-foot-eight and you come from a height and you can bowl quite fast as well, it makes you more of a handful,” Stead said.
“He's got a couple of different things that he's doing in the weights room and with our strength and conditioning coach to try and get that extra yard,” Auckland coach Heinrich Malan added.
But Jamieson wasn't the only story at Eden Park today as fellow opening bowler Ben Lister made history as the country's first-ever Covid-19 substitute.
Lister stood in for Mark Chapman, who is currently awaiting the result of a Covid-19 test, Malan said.
“He did the right thing to make us all aware of that and then got a test around lunchtime yesterday and from an adapting point of view, that's probably what this season is going to be about.”
If Chapman's test is negative, he can sub back in for Lister straight away.
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