New Zealand's Wagner retires from international cricket
New Zealand paceman Neil Wagner has called time on his 64-test career, bowing out as the nation's fifth highest wicket-taker with 260 victims.
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New Zealand paceman Neil Wagner has called time on his 64-test career, bowing out as the nation's fifth highest wicket-taker with 260 victims.
With the likes of all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Aaron Hardie ruled out of the series, Australia was forced to make a change to their squad ahead of their away T20I series with New Zealand. Fast bowler Spencer Johnson has been added to the squad late ahead of the first match on Wednesday. Adam Zampa should be eligible for the series despite a logistical delay in arriving in New Zealand, while Matthew Wade will join the squad in Auckland for games two and three.
Jacques Kallis, one of the last multi-skilled legends, says quality all-rounders have become a scarcity in modern-day cricket, especially in Test cricket, because of "too much cricket across formats". While Sir Garfield Sobers (8032 runs and 235 wickets) is considered 'greatest of 'em all' across generations, Kallis (25,000-plus runs and nearly 600 wickets in three formats) is inarguably one of the legendary all-rounders the modern era has seen. In the 1980s, there were four great all-rounders in Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev while the new millennium saw emergence of Kallis and Andrew Flintoff. But with advent of T20 cricket and mushrooming leagues across the globe with new rules have actually discouraged development of multi-skilled cricketers.
New Zealand Test skipper and pacer Tim Southee completed 2,000 Test runs on Wednesday and joined legendary all-rounders Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori in an elite company. Southee reached the milestone during the first Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand at Sylhet. In Kiwis' first innings, he scored 35 runs off 62 balls. His knock consisted of three boundaries. Southee has played 95 Tests, scoring 2,011 runs at an average of 16.21, with six half-centuries in 135 innings. His best score is 77*. The Kiwi veteran joined Hadlee and Vettori to become the third player from his country to have 2,000-plus Test runs and 300-plus wickets. Hadlee represented the Kiwis in 86 Tests, taking 431 wickets and also scoring 3,124 runs at an average of 27.16, with two centuries and 15 fifties.
New Zealand speedster Trent Boult has made a return to the national side training camp ahead of the white-ball series against UAE and England. Experienced pacer Boult and bowling all-rounder Kyle Jamieson have made a return to the New Zealand squad for the white-ball series against England starting September 8 onwards. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) took to Twitter to welcome back Boult back to the New Zealand side nearly a year after giving up his central contract for Kiwis.
The first day of the first Test match against West Indies belonged to Ravichandran Ashwin. He completed his 33rd five-wicket haul in style to put his team on the front foot. He has now become the bowler with the most five-wicket hauls in Test cricket among all active players. After missing the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 final against Australia earlier in June, Ashwin made an impactful return in India's first match of the new 2023-25 WTC cycle. He took 5/60 in 24.3 overs at an economy rate of 2.44. He dismissed skipper Kraigg Braithwaite, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Alick Athanaze, Jason Holder and Jomel Warrican.
India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continued his monstrous run against West Indies, becoming the bowler with the most five-wicket hauls in Test cricket among all active players. Ashwin accomplished this feat during India's first Test against West Indies in Dominica. After missing the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 final against Australia earlier in June, Ashwin made an impactful return in India's first match of the new 2023-25 WTC cycle.
Veteran batter Angelo Mathews overtook former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and became just the third Sri Lankan player to have scored 7000 Test runs as the island nation made a good start to the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch. Mathews scored a valuable 47 on the opening day at Basin Reserve, with Sri Lanka reaching 305/6 at stumps to keep their slim hopes alive of reaching June's ICC World Test Championship final against Australia. Sri Lanka need to clinch a 2-0 series sweep over the Kiwis in New Zealand and rely on India not defeating Australia in the concurrent Test in Ahmedabad to reach the World Test Championship decider and they gave themselves every chance of doing so on Thursday after they were sent into bat first by Black Caps captain Tim Southee.