sport news New Zealand's Devon Conway will hope to emulate his remarkable debut double ton ... trends now
If New Zealand's Devon Conway needed a reminder he could play a bit, he got it this week as he entered the visitors' dressing-room at Lord's.
Conway is only seven Tests into his career, but there on the wall was confirmation he had already made history: almost exactly a year ago, he became the first player to score a double-century on Test debut at the home of cricket. Phlegmatic though he is, he is still taking it in.
'I got a moment of that the other day,' he tells Sportsmail. 'I walked into the changing-room and saw my name up on the honours board again. It brought back some of those memories of what a great debut it was.'
And it really was – not least because he had set the bar low, promising team-mates he would acknowledge them up on the balcony if and when he got through his first ball.
'Broady bowled one outside off, and I let it go through – I'll never forget it: right, I've got through my first ball in Test cricket, which was a pretty special feeling. And then it was about getting into the game.'
A born-and-bred South African, Conway has clearly mastered the native understatement of his adopted country: 'getting into the game' turned into a nine-and-a-half-hour epic. When he was last out for 200, he had made New Zealand's highest score at Lord's since Martin Donnelly in 1949.
New Zealand batter Devon Conway (pictured) returns to Lord's on Thursday, the site of his debut double century against England in 2021, for the first Test against the same opponents
Conway wrote his name onto the honours' board at the home of cricket with the superb knock
The 30-year-old gave Sportsmail's Paul Newman an exclusive interview ahead of the game
The day before his debut, he had tried to walk off nerves in Regents Park, anxiously asking team-mate Tom Blundell about the challenges of Test cricket.
Now, he looked a natural – and followed up with 80 at Edgbaston, where New Zealand sealed their first series win in England since 1999.
Soon after, he made a crucial half-century at Southampton's Ageas Bowl as New Zealand won a low-scoring World Test Championship final against India. By then, he had just about finished responding to all the congratulatory text messages. He describes the experience
