• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Fresh Series In Sight Neil Wagner Recalls Heartbreaking Memories Against England At Lords

Fresh series in sight, Neil Wagner recalls 'heartbreaking' memories against England at Lord's

Mayank Kumar

New Zealand will start their campaign on the tour of England with a Test match against the hosts at Lord’s, and pacer Neil Wagner has all the ‘heartbreaking’ memories of losing a World Cup final in 2019 fresh in his mind. While he accepted that the Blackcaps should move on from that episode, he conceded the defeat was a ‘tough pill to swallow' for his teammates. 

“I do feel some of the boys will be a bit raw. Some memories will come back which will hurt because it was a tough pill to swallow. It could have been a monumental day in their lives and it ended up being heartbreaking. At the same time, you’ve got to move forward. Opportunities to play England at Lord’s are very rare. I think they’ll shake it off,” Wagner said in a virtual press conference from his hotel room in Southampton.

He also has some memories of a historic low of 68 all out in the Test series of 2013. Wagner said that he was reminded by their routing by the pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad on a cloudy day at Lord’s through a Facebook video.

“It’s funny. I’ve been on Facebook this morning and there was a video of Broad running through us with seven wickets. It was a typical Lord’s day with cloud cover and it fell nicely into their hands. But England are quality opposition in their own conditions and Anderson and Broad are even better now,” Wagner said.

It was a bad game personally for Wagner himself, who was very young in his Test career and was not quite sure about his role and skills in the longest format.

“Back then, I wasn’t really established in the team. I was still vying for my spot and trying to prove my worth,” Wagner added.

Wagner said that with time he realised that there was no point competing with the pair of Trent Boult and Tim Southee who were superb with the new ball with the amount of swing they had in their arsenal. 

Hence, he decided to work on offering another dimension to the New Zealand pace attack and therefore adopted the role of an ‘enforcer’ who would test the mettle and patience of batsmen with short and skidding deliveries onto their bodies.

“We’ve got two guys in the team in Trent and Tim who are extremely good with the swinging ball," he said. "Rather than try to compete with that, I wanted to offer something different, to complement them. The left-arm angle does help. There aren’t many lefties in the world who do it like me. I’m also a bit shorter, so the ball comes through quite skiddy,” Wagner assessed his journey.

The change in mindset and gaining clarity over his role worked wonders for both the Blackcaps and Wagner as he has broke into the top three of the ICC Test rankings for bowlers. He has been an instrumental figure behind New Zealand’s journey into the final of the World Test Championship with 32 wickets from seven Test matches at a staggering average fo 22.50 runs per wicket.

Earlier this year, in a true testimony to his character, in a Test match against Pakistan, Wagner bowled his heart out despite two of his toes being fractured. When asked, the left armer said that the Blackcaps needed to win both the Tests against Pakistan to reach the WTC final and hence he decided to put his body on the line. 

“It was awful. I kept thinking, why am I doing it? But I wanted to be part of it all. We needed to win both Tests to get to the final, and it was about playing for the team. I’m glad I did it,” Wagner said.

He said that playing for New Zealand is matter of pride for him and hence he never lacks passion even when he is asked to bowl tough and long spells of bowling.

“I like to play with passion. I love playing for New Zealand. It’s not always easy to bowl long spells of short-pitched stuff but it’s something I take a lot of pride in.”

Wagner’s role in the team will be ever so important as Trent Boult has not flown to the UK to join the squad for the two-match long series against hosts. Kane Williamson will back Wagner to continue producing match-winning spells as he has been doing in the last few years, especially back home.

Discover more

Top Stories
news

BAN vs SL | Coach Russell Domingo focuses on 'basics' in contest of 'evenly matched sides'

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo said that his side starts as the favourite to win the ODI series against Sri Lanka scheduled to start tomorrow in Dhaka. Addressing a pre-series press conference held virtually, Domingo said although the sides are evenly matched on paper before the start, the hosts will be undeniable favourites having familiarity with the home conditions. "I think these are two evenly matched sides. I suppose with the home advantage being quite a big factor in international cricket, we always start as favourites, but we cannot underestimate Sri Lanka. They have some seriously good players who will be keen to prove a point,” Domingo said. He also underlined the need of getting the basics right for his side before trying out few things. Bangladesh have not great time in the five-over format and Domingo said that now is now the perfect time to experiment new combination or tactics. "We want to get the basics right as a team," Domingo said a day before the opening ODI. "If we can do that, then we can experiment one or two things. We haven't done that in the last couple of games. We did play well against the West Indies at home. With the team low on confidence, there's no need to do anything fancy and complicate things,” Domingo added. Although Domingo said both sides are evenly matched he said that the battle between the two batting orders will be the one to watch out for in the series. He highlighted the lack of experience in the Sri Lankan batting order with the tourists coming after having dropped the senior pros such as Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal. At the same time, he echoed his support and backing to the Bangladesh batting order which he said has more experience at the international level to come good. "There's no Chandimal and Mathews. We have a more experienced batting line-up. But we also know that they have some quality players in Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis, who will be trying to play an aggressive brand of cricket with a young team. Our top order got good batting time (in practice matches) and preparation this week. I am looking forward to how the two batting line-ups match-up in the next week. We have a bunch of experienced players in Mushfiqur (Rahim), (Mahmudullah) Riyad, Tamim (Iqbal) and Shakib (Al Hasan). But it is always important to give opportunities to younger players,” Domingo added. Domingo also underlined the need to groom younger players while the old guards in Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah are still around. “Those senior players won't be around forever. We have to make sure that we develop some other players who can step into their boots. Hopefully, a guy like Afif (Hossain) can come into the series this time and make an impact,” Domingo reckoned. Bangladesh will be looking to bounce back in the ODI format after facing back to back series defeats against New Zealand and West Indies.

news

Sri Lanka ODI skipper Kusal Perera downplays impact of pay dispute ahead of Bangladesh ODI series

Newly-appointed captain Kusal Perera has downplayed the talks around the paying dispute between players and the Sri Lanka Cricket and said that the issue will not affect players’ performances in the series agianst Bangladesh starting tomorrow in Dhaka. However, he shared hopes that the issue will be sorted sooner than later. "We don't want to think too much about the ongoing contract issue with the board since we're focused on the series at this moment. Yes, it is a concern for all of us but we're hoping it will be resolved soon,'' Perera told reporters in Dhaka. Perera recognised the poor death bowling that hurt the team in the series against West Indies but said that sometimes experience helps players improve and that players should be backed for a long time. ''Sometimes you need to get hit and learn from your mistakes. We have plans for our death bowling, but it's important to keep in mind that that's a role that you only get better at with experience. We can't expect perfection from the start, our bowlers are new to this role so we need to have patience,” Perera added. Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents and expected nature of pitches, Perera said that Bangadesh rely on their spinners for success and hence the surfaces are expected to be spin-friednly. He also said that Sri Lanka fielding outfit can make a difference in the outcome of the series. "We know that one of Bangladesh's strengths is their spin bowling attack, so we expect wickets to cater to that. I think our fielding has the potential to make a huge impact on this series,'' he concluded. The three-match ODI series between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will start on May 23 in Dhaka.

news

Inzamam-ul Haq appointed batting consultant of Peshawar Zalmi for remainder of PSL 6

Peshawar Zalmi has acquired the services of former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq as the batting consultant for the remainder of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) slated to be held next month. It was on Saturday that the PCB confirmed their intentions of holding the remaining matches from June 5 in Abu Dhabi. Confirming the development of Inzamam’s appointment, Peshawar Zalmi took to their Twitter handle and wrote, "Legend Inzamam Ul Haq joins Peshawar Zalmi as Mentor/Batting Consultant for remaining matches of PSL 6." The franchise will look to continue their good run when they set to finish off the tournament in the second leg. When the tournament was suspended in early March, Zalmi’s were occupying the second spot in the points table. Meanwhile, according to a report in ANI, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday confirmed that they have received all the approvals and exemptions from the UAE government for hosting the remainder of the 20 matches in Abu Dhabi. PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said: "We are delighted with this development as the remaining hurdles in the staging of the remaining PSL 6 matches in Abu Dhabi have been overcome and all systems are now good to go,” PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan was quoted as saying by ANI. “We are grateful to the UAE government, National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, Emirates Cricket Board, and Abu Dhabi Sports Council for their support and patronage in ensuring all final obstacles were removed, which has firmly put us in a position to complete our marquee event,” he further added. The 6th edition of the tournament was halted indefinitely after several COVID-19 cases were reported among players and officials. The tournament is expected to resume on 5th June with the final slated to be played on 20th June.