Neil Wagner is a South African- born New Zealand Test Cricketer was born 13th March 1986. Wagner started his career in Pretoria at the Afrikaans high school before moving to Otago in 2009. In 2009 Wagner went down to join Otago, he played really well in the opening season taking 21 wickets and over the years moved up in the ranks to get himself in the lead for the wicket’s chart in the Plunket Shield in 2010-11 before finishing with 46 wickets in the next season. He was the highest wicket-taker in the 2010-11 season with 46 wickets. This performance got noticed and he was picked for the test series against West Indies in 2012.
Wagner still plays for the Otago team and is a mainstay in the New Zealand test steam. He is yet to make any appearances in the limited overs cricket for his National team. Wagner’s ability to swing the ball both ways and an advantage of bowling reverse swing gave him the edge over many first-class bowlers. He had a decent outing against England where he took 19 wickets in 5 matches. His first five-wicket haul came against Bangladesh at Dhaka. In the same year he took 11 wickets against India and was instrumental in setting up New Zealand for the famous win at Auckland.
Wagner was in solid form during New Zealand's tour of Zimbabwe in 2016, where he took 11 wickets in the two-match series, including a five-wicket haul in the first test following which he won the ‘Man of the series award’. Wagner then toured his homeland, South Africa. In the second Test, while New Zealand suffered a loss, Wagner again spearheaded the attack, grabbing his fourth five-wicket haul.
In April 2017, Wagner was picked in New Zealand's ODI squad for the 2017 Ireland Tri-Nation Series. On 1 December 2017, Wagner became the bowling partner to Trent Boult due to Tim Southee’s injury, where claimed his best figures of 7/39, which also stands as a record for New Zealand to claim it within a day, and within just two sessions of play.
Wagner made his test debut on 25th July 2012 against the West Indies. Since then, he has played in 48 test matches for New Zealand and has grabbed 206 wickets at an average of 26.6, he has 9 five-wicket hauls to his name and has a very impressive economy rate of 3.06. His best figures in the longest format of the game are 7/39.
New Zealand
