Hamish Kyle Bennett was born on 22nd February 1987 at Timaru in Canterbury in New Zealand.

He is a right-arm fast bowler who can be called a little unfortunate for not representing New Zealand consistently. Bennett and Kane Williamson stepped onto the ground donning national shirts together but due to continuous injury problem, this 33-year-old pacer had to become back-bencher comparing to Kane Williamson’s success. Still, showing great mental strength the fast bowler has come back to mainstream cricket although Bennett, in his second innings of mainstream cricket has been more successful in white-ball game than his performance in the Test and Tim Southee, one of the key fast bowlers in New Zealand squad has recently made appreciation for Bennett’s revival and return to the white-ball cricket performance in recent times. The recent duel between Bennett and Virat Kohli that began from the 2014 ODI series till the series held in 2020 has been interesting to watch where Bennett has won most of the times, bowling out Kohli with his scorching pace Bennett (143 kilometers per hour in average).

Bennett made his debut in first-class cricket for Canterbury in 2005 in the State Championship. Giving away huge 154 runs in only 28 overs Hamish Bennett secured only 2 wickets and his struggle for survival in the game continued for a long time. However, he was a speed star even in his early days and that might have been the reason Bennett ensured a berth in the New Zealand under-19 squad for the under-19 World Cup in 2006 in Sri Lanka. In the Plate final against Nepal, Hamish Bennett had an impressive 3 wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. In the under-19 World Cup that year Hamish Bennett was also among the top 10 wicket-takers as he had claimed 14 wickets including the best of 4 wickets for 16 runs at an average of 10.71.

Bennett was chosen for One-Day International (ODI) against Bangladesh at Dhaka and there Bennett had an eye-catching performance by scalping 3 wickets for 44 runs in 8 overs at an economy rate of 5.50. He also ensured a berth in the national side for the ICC 2011 World Cup, held in India, and acquired the man-of-the-match award by capturing 4 wickets against Kenya. Then again, a serious back-injury forced Bennett to go out of the cricket for almost two years. He returned to the ODI squad of New Zealand in 2014. In the ODI series in 2014 Bennett showed glimpses of his fiery pace and accuracy, especially creating sheer discomfort for Indian captain Virat Kohli by bowling him out twice. But at the same time, Bennett was facing his niggling injuries. Then the pacer decided to shift from Canterbury to Wellington and a new revitalized Bennett was witnessed since 2017 as he became the leading wicket-taker in Ford Trophy in 2018 for Wellington, bagging 28 wickets followed by another highest wicket-taking stint in Super Smash Championship where he registered 17 dismissals in 11 matches. Bennett has taken part in 19 ODIs and scalped 33 wickets. He had a splendid show in his last ODI against India at Maunganui displaying the figure of 10 overs, 1 maiden, 64 runs, and 4 wickets.

Surprisingly, in the same year in November, just a month later his debut in the ODI in 2010 Bennett had participated in only one Test match against India in the first Test of New Zealand’s tour at Ahmadabad in November 2010. But in his maiden Test appearance Bennett failed to impress, bowling 15-wicket less overs at the cost of 47 runs in the first innings. His only gain was to earn two maiden overs in the innings. Being plagued by a groin injury Bennett failed to enter the ground in the second innings.

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Bennett played in his maiden Twenty20 International this year against India at Auckland. Bennett, in his 4 overs had to concede 36 runs without a wicket and even without a maiden over. He has participated in 7 T20Is so far and bagged only 6 wickets. Otherwise, Bennett has gathered 53 wickets from his 63 T20 matches so far.

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