Busy times around the various Niche Cache sports desks resulted in the Kiwi County Tour being pushed to the back-burner. It was a shame to leave the lads after bidding farewell to the T20 ladies and return to cover the NRL Finals, but I was more than happy to pass the keys of the bus on to Neil Wagner - who now owns the bus after winning the Division One title with Essex. I'll roll through various reviews over the coming days and that'll involve a mandatory check in with Lord Jeetz, but Wagner's efforts with champions Essex are such that ol' Wagnut deserves all sorts of loving.

Wagner is a fan favourite in Aotearoa and is our cricketing cult-hero. We tend to do things rather halfheartedly in Aotearoa (led by sports fandom) and while I'm confident that I speak for most cricket lovers in Aotearoa when I say that Wagner is the closest thing we've got to a cricket cult-hero, it still feels like Wagner is under-appreciated. That started with Wagner being pigeon-holed as a bloke who could only bowl bumpers to get wickets and this culture of Wagner being under-appreciated was - funnily enough - led by the Blackcaps selectors and coaching staff who refuse to believe Wagner can play international limited overs cricket.

🎥 | Neil Wagner picks up the wicket of Gareth Berg caught by Varun Chopra in the slips. Hampshire are 50-8. #HAMvESS pic.twitter.com/6aBGrMDjDm
— Essex Cricket (@EssexCricket) September 22, 2017

We all know Wagner's a gun, he's Mr Wickets and does a fantastic job whenever he is called on, but yeah, he's just not really given the adequate praise for what he is capable of; mainly because he doesn't get much of an opportunity. So, ponder the fact that Wagner had better statistics in Essex's Royal London One-Day Cup campaign than he did in their County Championship season.

Yes, some people view Wagner as a long-form workhorse bowler who solely plugs an end while the other bowlers have a rest. Wagner was however ranked 9th in RLODC wickets with 14 and finished the tournament with an average of 25.21, putting him ahead of other notable bowlers (with similar number of games/overs) such as James Pattinson (Aus),John Hastings (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng) and Tim Bresnan (Eng).

Before and after the RLODC, Wagner played his role perfectly in Essex's unbeaten Championship run as he formed a tricky-trio with Jake Porter and Simon Harmer for Essex. Porter led all wicket-takers in Division One with 75 @ 16.82avg and Harmer wasn't too far behind in 2nd on 72 wickets @ 19.19avg, they were the only two DivOne bowlers to snare over 70 wickets. Wagner's 31 wickets @ 35.32avg seems super mediocre compared to the stars of Essex bowling attack, but Wagner was one of only 16 DivOne bowlers to take 30+ wickets and while his average was slightly high, his 3.45rpo ain't shabby at all.

Point being; Wagner played his role in an exceptional Essex bowling attack. Given that across both Division One and Two, Porter and Harmer were the only bowlers to take 70+ wickets, they needed a steady, reliable hand to maintain pressure and pounce. Opposition teams would have known of the threat posed by Porter and Harmer, making them more willing to attack Wagner and while that does present more opportunities, Wagner still had a job to do if Essex were to dominate as they did.

Wagner's role in Essex's County glory is similar to the role he plays for Aotearoa. The main difference would be that Wagner had greater opportunities to open the bowling instead of bowling after Trent Boult and Tim Southee, but in terms of Wagner adapting to the game situation and executing exactly what his captain needs; bread and butter. What was super interesting though was the combination of this, in County cricket and Wagner's work in 50-over cricket.

Being successful in both formats is difficult and Wagner seamlessly transitioned between both, not only transitioning but also maintaining a wicket-taking threat. Wagner only played one Ford Trophy game last summer in Aotearoa, he did however play 10 Super Smash games and took 9 wickets @ 29.11avg/7.70rpo, which had him ranked 11th in wickets with a lower rpo than the top-3 wicket-takers. Excluding his Blackcaps work, Wagner's had a solid level of success in all three formats over the past 12 months and then on top of that you can add his glory as the best Blackcaps Test bowler we currently have.

Don't expect Wagner to get opportunities at the international level in limited overs cricket though as he's obviously too good for that. The Blackcaps have pigeon-holed Wagner in one of many frustrating decisions (along with the plethora of frustrating decisions from NZC) and now they appear to moving younger - that Champions Trophy team didn't do so well though.

Right now, Wagner averages 28.90 in Test cricket and as Wagner averages 27.11 in FC, 26.53 in LA and 26.14 in T20 cricket. I don't know about y'all but to me that smells like the glorious smell of Aotearoa's best seamer and he's just finished reppin' that title over in England; the Kiwi County Tour bus is yours for the kiwi summer bruv.

Peace and love 27.

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