Lockie Ferguson vs Kyle Jamieson: The Battle of Perception
Lockie Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson have been strolling down two very different T20 paths this year leading into the T20 World Cup. Ferguson has been extremely impressive in T20 leagues, building a hearty case for 1st 11 selection at the T20WC and this will likely come at the expense of Jamieson regardless of how much upside Jamieson's batting may provide.
Given that these ideas stretch back to the T20I series vs Australia earlier this year, these aren't exactly hefty revelations. Jamieson struggled in that series with 1 wicket @ 175avg/11.66rpo and Jamieson was graced with an IPL contract which apparently sits in the fourth highest spot (equal to MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant). This left me curious as to how Jamieson would perform under such contract pressure in the most hostile cricket fandom.
Everything started off well. Jamieson took 9w in the first stanza, playing seven games before the IPL shut down. This put Jamieson among the best IPL bowlers and the first obstacle for kiwis in the IPL is getting game time; Jamieson got immediate game time with Bangalore and took wickets. Then Jamieson took 7w in the World Test Championship Final, helping Aotearoa settle in as the best Test team in the world and taking Jamieson to 46w @ 14.17avg in Test cricket.
Such a Test record commands buzz. That buzz resulted in a massive IPL deal and hype around Jamieson's exploits in England where he had a T20 Blast gig with Surrey. As a headline signing, Jamieson took 1w @ 132avg/9.54rpo in five games - slightly better than Jamieson's four games vs Australia.
Jamieson returned to IPL cricket for the second stanza, playing two games before he fell out of Bangalore's 1st 11. Jamieson conceded 12rpo with no wickets in those two games and this takes Jamieson to 1w in his last seven T20 games. This is an almighty flip from how I yarned about Jamieson's IPL first stanza mahi back in May...
Jamieson has been the most notable kiwi in the IPL, not precisely for his performances but his overall vibe of performing to his contract value. Bangalore sit 3rd on the ladder at the time of the postponement, tied on 10 points with Chennai who are 2nd via Net Run-Rate and Jamieson's 9w @ 24.55avg/9.20rpo has him ranked 7th for wicket-takers. Jamieson is the second best Bangalore bowler and he is the third best foreign seamer in the IPL behind Chris Morris (South Africa) and Sam Curran (England).
Here are Jamieson's T20 stats laid out...
vs Australia: 1w @ 175avg/11.66rpo.
IPL: 9w @ 29.88avg/9.60rpo.
T20 Blast: 1w @ 132avg/9.54rpo.
Career stats...
T20I: 4w @ 70.25avg/9.80rpo.
T20: 65w @ 25.96avg/8.60rpo.
Jamieson hasn't been able to take his dominant Super Smash mahi to higher levels and that's understandable. Even his IPL stats are slightly deceptive as Jamieson conceded more than 10rpo in six of his nine games. Right now Jamieson is a T20 bowler who might take a wicket and will probably concede 10rpo. As fabulous as his Test bowling is, we're in a T20 phase and Jamieson has fallen well behind the other kiwi bowler with x-factor in Ferguson.
Ferguson didn't play in the T20I series vs Australia and this is the Ferguson downside as he's often injured. All six of Ferguson's IPL games have been in the second stanza and in just six games, Ferguson has already passed Jamieson for IPL wickets; 12w @ 11.83avg/6.45rpo. Ferguson's Kolkata team just knocked Bangalore out if the IPL as well.
This is part of wider excellence though. Ferguson took 14w @ 19.21avg/7.27rpo in the T20 Blast which puts him among the elite bowlers in the two biggest T20 leagues played this year. While Jamieson's T20 career stats don't align with his T20I stats or his step up to overseas T20 leagues, all of Ferguson's T20 bowling is good...
T20I: 24w @ 13.16avg/6.86rpo.
T20: 93w @ 22.52avg/7.47rpo.
T20 leagues take on greater importance right now as Ferguson has only played one of his 13 T20I games overseas and all of Jamieson's games have been in Aotearoa. Chuck in minimal T20WC preparation and we have to dive deep in T20 leagues to set up form guides. The vast difference in conditions between IPL and T20 Blast had no impact on Ferguson, while Jamieson's first stanza of IPL has been washed away by his more recent work.
This sparks some minor ideas about player value and efficiency in T20 leagues that have some kind of salary cap. We have two kiwi seamers who entered the 2021 IPL auction with different vibes as Ferguson had already shown his skills in T20I cricket for Aotearoa, as well as a few years in both IPL and T20 Blast - all with decent stats. Jamieson had generated hype through his Test mahi and his overall T20I record last summer (West Indies, Pakistan, Australia) was 4w @ 70.25avg/9.80rpo in eight games.
Ferguson was bought by Kolkata for 16 million rupees.
Jamieson was bought by Bangalore for 150 million rupees.
This is Ferguson's fourth IPL and he's been at that 16milly mark for three consecutive campaigns with a total IPL career contract value of 53 million rupees. Jamieson's first IPL deal is three times more than Ferguson's value across four years. Big up Bangalore genius Mike Hesson for that one.
These IPl contracts show the perception of Ferguson and Jamieson, plus how weird the IPL can be. Get into the nitty-gritty of these two and it's clear that Ferguson is the bloke Aotearoa need in their T20WC 1st 11. What's also clear is that Jamieson's got plenty of mahi ahead of him to sustain his impact as batters around the world acquaint themselves with Jamieson.
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