Neil Wagner: The Master of bouncers!

Of all the crowd including the likes Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Starc and Patrick Cummins, the one who has absolutely mastered the art of short pitch bowling is a certain New Zealander named Neil Wagner. When he announced his arrival in test match cricket with a five for against England, captain Brendon Mccullum called him a workhorse. After a couple of quite years, right now he is probably the best bowler for New Zealand in the longest format. Not a daunting figure on the field, about 5 foot 10, Neil Wagner has the heart for fast bowling. What he did in Australia over the period of last month was exceptional. When the Kiwis were not getting any breakthroughs on those flat Australian wickets against a strong and in form Australian batting line up, Neil Wagner was the one running in all day. When in crisis, Kane Williamson and later Tom Latham in Sydney, always turned to the left arm pacer to provide them with a breakthrough and very seldom did he disappoint. 

In all honesty, amidst all the carnage and hammering inflicted by the Aussies, Neil Wagner running in with an adoring fan base behind him and literally bowling bumpers all day was one of the sights of the Australian summer. The most surprising aspect of his bowling was that he was only bowling at around 132-133 and yet he was making the batsmen hoping up & down. People often think that bowling bumpers doesn't require as much skill but there isn't much truth in it. Not everybody can execute bouncers and not everybody can bowl them at will. Bowling bouncers consistently and not get hit for runs demands accuracy. If you are not accurate, one poor ball will ruin the efforts of the previous two good deliveries and the accuracy with which Neil Wagner was nailing those short balls was impeccable. 

Sir Len Hutton always said that these fast bowlers are 'difficult'. He said-" I was facing (Ray) Lindwall and (Keith) Miller at the oval one day. I decided to hook Lindy but from the corner of my eye I could see the hospital so I cut it out!" Neil Wagner was definitely the most difficult bowler to face for the Australians. He had Steven Smith, probably the best test batsman of his generation, look for singles to run to the other end. Having taken his wicket 4 times in the first 2 tests, Wagner definitely had Smith's numbers and had the wood on him for the majority of the series. What exactly does Wagner do to get those bouncers right? His teammates say that he doesn't do 'only bouncers' in the nets, in fact not at all. He likes to try a few and get on with it straight into the game. For a man who is not more than 5 foot 11, to consistently get the ball chest high to much taller batsmen is something very remarkable. His duels with Matthew Wade at Melbourne and Sydney were something test cricket needs and every cricket fan craves for. By becoming the quickest left arm pacer to 200 test wickets, he is already up there with some of New Zealand's better cricketers. Wagner at least has 4-5 years of cricket left in him. If he can somehow get a yard quicker, he might be unplayable and a horror sight for any batting line up around the world.