Anshul Kamboj on criticism, expectations and creating his own brand in the colors of India

Anshul Kamboj gave India a timely reminder of his bowling credentials with an impressive spell against New Zealand in the first ODI at Eden Park on Wednesday. The Haryana pacer returned figures of 2/22 from his 10 overs and sent down 46 dot balls as the hosts were bowled out for 185.

His performance also earned strong support from captain Shubman Gill, who believes Kamboj has the attributes to thrive in conditions like those in New Zealand.

NZ vs IND, 1st ODI: Highlighting | Scorecard

“Anshul is the kind of bowler… I think he is tailor-made for these conditions, always sharp, tries to seam the ball and is good with the old ball,” Gill said during the post-match presentation.

“We felt that when there’s not a lot going on from the wicket, he can create that extra bounce and with his pace and the way they both bowled tonight, it was really amazing to watch.”

Kamboj complemented the efforts of Arshdeep Singh and Gurnoor Brar who took four and three wickets respectively. While both struck at regular intervals, Kamboj ensured that New Zealand could not build momentum during the middle overs.

The 25-year-old said the assist on offer made it important for him to get the lengths right rather than chasing wickets.

“The wicket offered a bit of seam movement. But it was also important to bowl good lengths to get something off the surface. If you miss your lengths, you can go for runs,” he said during the post-match press conference.

“I just tried to keep bowling in the right areas for as long as possible. If you bowled in the right areas, there was enough help on the wicket.

ONE BAD MATCH

Kamboja’s performance came after an expensive ODI debut, but the pacer insisted that one difficult outing hasn’t dented his confidence too much. He believes that a single match should not determine how a player is judged.

“Basically, having one bad game doesn’t define your career or whether you’re a good or a bad player. I’ve done the same things since the beginning and I’m still doing them,” he said.

“So one bad game didn’t affect me too much. It just motivated me to do better, keep improving and try harder.”

Asked if Indian cricket fans and pundits were too quick to form opinions after the poor performance, Kamboj said he preferred to stay away from the noise.

“Actually, I don’t pay much attention to these things. I focus more on my cricket and think about how I can improve. I don’t worry about what people think or say about me. It doesn’t affect me much,” he said.

The Haryana pacer also explained why he does not judge his bowling purely by the runs conceded. For him, the execution of the intended delivery is more important than the end result.

“If you want to bowl a yorker and execute it well but still concede runs, there is no problem with that. You should not focus too much on the result because it will not always be in your favour,” he said.

MORE VERSATILE ambitions

Kamboj also spoke about his development as an all-rounder, explaining that he prefers to treat batting and bowling as separate responsibilities rather than trying to balance both at the same time.

“For an all-rounder, it’s pretty simple. When you have the ball in your hand, you’re a bowler. When you have the bat in your hand, you’re a batsman. You have to focus on those things separately,” he said.

“When you’re batting, don’t think about bowling, and when you’re batting, don’t think about batting. That’s the main objective.”

He added that improving his batting remains an important part of his development, along with continuing to work on his bowling and fielding.

With India’s top fast bowlers unavailable for the opening ODI, Kamboj proved himself in the young pace attack. His ability to extract bounce, maintain accuracy and keep the score in check gives India another option in conditions that favor seam bowling. Gill’s support only adds to the promise of an outing where Kamboj will leave most of the talk about his bowling.

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