Zimbabwean all-rounder Jonathan Campbell is well aware of the pros and cons of being the son of a legendary cricketer.

Jonathan, who debuted against Bangladesh in the ongoing five-match T20I series, will always be under scanner considering he is the son of legendary batsman Alistair Campbell.

It is always hard to fulfil the expectation as comparison with his father is bound to happen now and then but the left-handed batsman also sees another side of it - having a goal to achieve, if not anything else.

“Yeah, there is always a level of expectation obviously, wherever I go. It’s competing against what he has done in the past and where he scored runs, I have gotta try and score more runs. So, yeah there is a level of expectation but that’s good. I set some sort of goals for me to go and achieve and it gives me a sort of pathway to try and be successful,” Jonathan told The Daily Sun recently.

“There is always fun for me. I try to put the expectations aside, whatever happens, happens but I try to enjoy my cricket. At the end of the day, I am playing it because I love the game of cricket. And that’s what I try to remind myself of all the time,” he said, adding that his father had a huge impact on his career.

“I mean he was the one who probably made me play cricket in the first place. I still watch videos of him today, playing against Bangladesh, playing against Pakistan and watching him play against all these legends and taking them on. He was obviously very successful against them. So, yeah he was a big inspiration while growing up for me, and he still is now. Hopefully, by him watching me, he is obviously getting a lot of pleasure,” he said.

Jonathan also revealed that his grandfather changed him into a leg-spinner early. He said that his father was also changed to a left-handed batsman from a right-hander by his grandfather.

“When I was about seven years old, I used to bowl pace like every young kid. You wanna run in and bowl as fast as you can and then my grandfather, my dad’s father (Ian), he said to me like no, you’re too small, you can’t bowl pace and so he changed me into a leg-spinner and said these are the bowlers that take wickets,” he said.

“And that was in the early 2000 when he changed me. Imagine in early 2000, you didn’t see the likes of Rashid Khan and anyone back then, there was Shane Warne of course and that’s what he obviously followed and said these are the type of bowlers, seeing Shane Warne take wickets that’s who you need to be like. So, that was the change,” he said.

“He played a little bit of cricket. Obviously, he was the one that changed my dad. My dad was a natural right-handed cricketer and he changed him into a left-handed player.

“He (grandfather) believed that your top hand must be your strongest hand...that’s why he should be a left-handed batsman. And that’s what happened and my dad taught me the same thing,” he said, adding that he was patient for his call in the national set-up after being debuted in first-class cricket five years back.

“I think it was patience, I obviously was hoping, would’ve hoped to make my debut a bit sooner. But I think it comes at the right time, and I think I’m mature enough now as a player, I understand my game as well as I can (inaudible) so I have grown up and when I walked up that first time to play in international cricket I didn’t feel like I was out of it, I felt like I belong here, this is where I need to be, and this is how I need to play cricket,” he said.

“My father is always a big advocate and prepared for international cricket and said if I’m not exceeding extremely well at the domestic level, I’m not ready enough. As soon as I start exceeding well above expectations at the domestic level, I am ready to play. And this season I played really well in domestic cricket and exceeded expectations. So, I knew my time would come. And obviously, my time came,” he concluded.