Coming to India as a spinner tops the ledger, says New Zealand’s Jayden Lennox

Vadodara, Jan 10 (PTI) Drafted into the New Zealand side as a like-for-like replacement for the injured captain Mitchell Santner, left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox says coming to India “tops the ledger” for him as he awaits his international debut.

Lennox, 31, is among the new players in the touring New Zealand party and possibly in line to make his debut in the three-match ODI series starting here on Sunday.

“For somebody like me, (who is) passionate about spin bowling, to get the opportunity to come to India and to potentially debut is exciting,” Lennox told New Zealand Cricket in a video release.

“… somebody that's been a student in the game for too many years now. For me, this sits (at the) top of the ledger in terms of venues to come to. Just being fully immersed in a place like this is pretty special,” he added.

Coming from a quiet Hawkes Bay in Napier, Lennox recalled it was a simple journey from New Zealand to Mumbai but seeing so many people waiting outside the team hotel at 2:00am in the morning was “intimidating”.

“Certainly, it is a long way from quiet old Hawkes Bay. It's been a hectic few days, to be honest,” he said.

“The travel was pretty seamless, which is nice and then, getting in it at 2 o'clock in the morning, there being people outside the hotel, waiting for your arrivals, (can be) pretty intimidating when you come from Hawkes Bay, there's not many people around, ever, (it's that) kind of thing.

“I suppose it's been a little bit of a frantic entry to the international scene and seeing some of the guys here, how frantic the whole thing is, (can be) an overload for the senses I guess,” he added.

Lennox continued, “The security and just the buzz around the ground itself, just the amount of people working on the ground and the general buzz of cricket in India is special.” For Lennox, getting his maiden call-up to the Black Caps’ side became even more special because he was playing with his mates at the Hawkes Bay.

“Getting the call was special for two reasons… for one (it) was really special, but the second reason being that I was actually playing Hawkes Bay at the time,” he said.

“… to play with the guys that I've played a lot of my age group cricket with and turning up for them, which I don't really get to do very often anymore." Lennox said New Zealand’s focus will be to put individual performances together.

“At the moment (it) is just to keep focussing on what we're doing, not looking at the other team sheets, not looking at anything too exterior… just continuing to focus on the reason that we've been successful as individuals, and then try and put it together as a team and produce results if we can,” he added. PTI DDV PDS PDS