An Appreciation Of Neil Wagner, New Zealand’s Best Test Bowler
It’s still an illogical fact about Neil Wagner’s international career that he’s never played an ODI or T20 for the Blackcaps. His international resume consists entirely of his efforts with the red ball - and effort definitely feels like an appropriate word when talking about Wagnut. The dude quickly earned a reputation for doing the hard yards. For bowling into the wind, for getting through long spells. Tim Southee and Trent Boult were the Swing Kings and Wagner was the Workhorse.
The thing about working hard and bowling to a plan, though, is that sometimes people start to think that’s all you can do. After making his debut away in the West Indies in 2012 (match figures of 1/144 and 3/65 in those two Tests), Wagner was mostly seen as an alternative seamer option. After those two games in the Windies he was picked in the XI for 14 of the next 31 Tests – not even half of them. Somewhere along the way he added ‘short ball merchant’ to the list of his reputational characteristics and somewhere along the way he also worked his way up into the underestimated hero category.
Getting 8-for in a Test win in Auckland against India probably had something to do with it. Four in each innings, including 4/62 in the second as the Blackcaps bowled India out for 366 to win by 40 runs. Brendon McCullum scored a double ton that game, it was awesome. That was probably the first glimpse of the bowler that Wagner has become. Yet it’d be almost another whole year more before he finally earned his First XI status in the Test team but ol’ mate Waggy hasn’t looked back since.
The dude has a career record of 139 wickets in 33 Tests, averaging 28.05 after his starring efforts in the first Test against the West Indies this week. Pretty brilliant stuff, five 5-fors in there. Not to mention he’s only missed two of the last 19 Test matches as well, quite the contrast to the first half of his career. It’s genuinely striking how good he’s been since the end of 2015. We’re talking about a sustained level of excellence ever since Wagner finally earned that third seamer spot all for himself.
In those 33 innings he’s failed to take a wicket exactly three times… and on two of those occasions he only bowled five overs. The other time was against India in Kanpur in the second innings of a game in which the Blackcaps picked three spinners and India declared five down. Even accounting for the Blackcaps’ impoverished red-ball schedule this is still a lengthy sample size to be looking at. That there is the consistency of a legit strike bowler.
Those stats go back to the first Tests of the 2015/16 home summer, so almost two years to the very day. Seems like a good idea right now to take a peek at how other kiwi bowlers stack up across that time then, right?
There you have Wagnut and the next five top wicket takers of the last two years, a time period beginning with a home series against Sri Lanka and subsequently including two Tests at home against Australia, a tour to Zimbabwe and South Africa (two Tests vs each), three matches in India, two at home to Pakistan and Bangladesh, South Africa’s three Tests at from earlier in the year and then the first Test against the West Indies. Nineteen Test matches all up against a good range of teams.
Also getting overs in across this time period (this’ll give you some perspective alright, chief): Jeetan Patel (13 wickets at 42.92), Ish Sodhi (11 @ 31.63), Doug Bracewell (10 @ 49.70), Mark Craig (4 @ 73.00), Corey Anderson (3 @ 53.00), Martin Guptill (3 @ 11.00), Jimmy Neesham (2 @ 101.50), Kane Williamson (1 @ 66.0) and four wicketless overs each for Todd Astle and Brendon McCullum. She’s been an interesting couple of years, no kidding.
One thing that stands out is Colin de Grandhomme’s average and strike-rate, though you know why that is. Take out his debut effort of 6/41 against Pakistan and that average rises to 36.18 and the SR climbs into the 80s. Those numbers are more in line with the Test player he appears to be, although they still don’t suck by any means for a fourth seamer. The economy rate proves he keeps it tight and that’ll get you places.
Mitch Santner also keeps it tight but he doesn’t take wickets. He’s missing his own big-haul innings to fix that average. Still better numbers than Jeetan Patel managed in his comeback – shout out to Lord Jeets – but it’s kinda notable that Sodhi’s last three Tests have seen him average down in the low-30s, which is fantastic for a kiwi spinner. Sodhi’s overall numbers aren’t pretty but neither are Santner’s, really. What’s important to mention is that Sodhi played two of those Tests against Zimbabwe, although Santner was playing those ones too. Anyway, three out of 19 isn’t a very representative sample and when you look at our spinner stats it mostly only makes you remember what a legend Dan Vettori was.
To bring it back to Wagner, the obvious two comparisons are Southee and Boult. The opening bowlers and the two seamers who rank ahead of him on the depth chart. Or… they did until recently. Because Wagner famously selected ahead of Southee last year when NZ played South Africa at Dunedin back in March. In fact it’s the only Test in Wagner’s career in which he opened the bowling in both innings. With both Patel and Santner playing, Wagner and Boult were taken ahead of Southee on merit, with people reading into that as a wake-up call to Southee. Funny thing is that Southee actually dominates Boult here across this stretch of time… granted Boult took five-for against Aussie in Adelaide in the first Test outside this realm so that might be misleading. Boult vs Southee isn’t crazy dissimilar either… the point is more that Wagner demolishes both of them.
Extending it out of our little Aotearoa bubble, Wagner’s eighth on the list of wicket-takers across the last two years. Ravi Ashwin has 127, followed by Rangana Herath’s 106, chuck some Nathan Lyon and Kagiso Rabada in there as the other two with century-totals and there you go. No surprises that they’ve all played more Tests though. Rabada’s bowled a comparable amount of overs for his 100 wickets, so good on him, but let’s say we go by average and strike rate to level things out, call it a minimum of ten Tests so that Martin Guptill doesn’t come out first (which he does otherwise, best bowler in the world over the last two years with his three wickets at 11.00!).
Do that and it goes: Jimmy Anderson (85w @ 19.88ave), Kagiso Rabada (100 @ 22.06) and then Wagner (81 @ 23.44). Followed by Vernon Philander, Ravi Jadeja, Mitch Starc and all those other jokers. In terms of strike rates? Rabada is best at 37.6, Starc comes in second at 43.1 and then we have Neil Wagner’s 46.2. A podium finish in each.
Yes, there’s short pitched stuff peppered throughout the dishes he serves up and, sure, he doesn’t get the glamour overs with the new ball either. But right now we’ve gotta realise that what this bloke is doing stands up amongst the best bowlers in the world. Oh and we’re only likely to see him play four international games this summer so make sure you lap it up, one bouncer at a time.
Cheers to Waggy for the wickets and cheers to you for the views. You can say cheers to us for the writings by smacking an ad, easy as it gets.