South African-born New Zealand Test cricketer Neil Wagner has been signed by Yorkshire to play the first 10 matches of the County Championship 2023 season.
Neil Wagner Joins Yorkshire
1986 born moved to New Zealand in 2008 to pursue a career playing Test cricket. In June 2009, he was awarded a place in the New Zealand Emerging Players team under Peter Fulton, and eventually made his test debut for New Zealand against the West Indies in 2012. He has since played in 59 Test matches for New Zealand.
In 59 Tests he bagged 246 runs at an economy of 3.04 and scored 778 runs at an average of 14.15.
Wagner, who has played for Lancashire and Essex in the competition before and will join Yorkshire ahead of their season opener against Leicestershire on April 6.
Yorkshire’s managing director of cricket Darren Gough lauded Wagner’s ‘phenomenal’ first-class record, and expressed his delight at the signing. “We are delighted to have confirmed the signing of Neil for the opening ten rounds of the Championship,” Gough said.
“His record in first-class cricket is phenomenal, and the impact he has had on Test cricket playing for New Zealand has been huge. We are blessed to have some great bowlers to choose from within our ranks and believe that, with the addition of Neil, we have the bowlers to bowl any team out,” he added.
On 6 April 2011, Wagner took four wickets in four balls against Wellington when he dismissed Stewart Rhodes, Joe Austin-Smellie, Jeetan Patel, and Ili Tugaga.
He then took the wicket of Mark Gillespie with the sixth ball of the same over five wickets in one 6-ball over, the first (and, so far, only) time this has been achieved in first-class cricket. His bowling figures for the innings were 6/36, his personal best at that time.
Neil Wagner so far played in Otago, New Zealand, New Zealand A, Northamptonshire, New Zealand Board Presidents XI, Lancashire, Essex, Northern Knights, Team Williamson, and New Zealand XI.
