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A fine swing bowler with an incredible engine, frequently bowled his adopted New Zealand to success throughout a career that leaves behind 64 tests, 260 wkts at an avg of 27. His final test match was the recent victory over South Africa. His decision to retire was made immediately after being told that he would not be selected for the forthcoming 2 test series against Australia. Wagner, soon to turn 38, made his debut against the Windies at North Sound back in July 2012.

sunil ambris would remember him very well on his debut

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

one of the best modern day exponents of the short stuff

given all the restrictions on the short stuff, he did it to perfection.

In reply to doosra

Terrorised our batsmen no end!!

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

had one ball. the short ball. he had the advantage that many players that visited NZ had trash techniques when plying the short ball. tried to disrespect gayle......and the universe boss put a stop to that one time. an era before boy scoutry

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

A very good cricketer which young players can try to emulate. Wish him well in retirement.

In reply to Jumpstart

for someone studying a field that is data-oriented, I marvel at your ability to pick data that suits you and ignore the rest

the match Gayle took NZ apart was his first or second...

his overall body of work is way better than you make it out to be...for example his home and away record are very similar

In reply to doosra

i didn't say his body of work was poor. i said his stats were inflated by the fact that the opposition he faced had technical issues with short pitched bowling. Never took a five wicket hall in Australia, despite having 5 innings to do so. And that two for a bowler who is consistently bowling back of a length. took one fiver vs SA.....when SA had lead of over 200 and were looking for quick runs in the second innings(the same series where dale steyn accused him of lacking courage). It wasn't like Walsh's masterclass in 1999 at kensington. SA were swinging for the hills and lost wickets as a result. he doesn't even have a fever vs Pakistan and india in NZ or away, and Australasian conditions are the most alien to subcontinental batsmen historically and still is. I'm sorry but what qualifies for greatness for me in bowling still stands. Bumrah is a great bowler because he has a range of skills which allow him to examine and exploit weaknesses. Pat cummins and KG rabada are great bowlers for the same reason.

If civil engineering was mostly stats based, I'd be a millionaire by now....it isn't really. yes you have to know the geotechnical properties of the ground you have to build on,the strength of the materials you're using, the speed, for example of the curve that drivers have to pass on, and even then the person mapping the curve out is the surveyor, not the engineer. PS .

He’s a really good example of the ‘skid on’ effect. He was for the most part around 135K’s mark, and yet he could regularly trouble even the best batsmen with a short Skiddy, onto you faster than you think short delivery. I remember seeing him cause Joe Root and Steve Smith real problems. West Indian batsmen facing him a few years back on ‘that’ tour were embarrassing. It was as if he was bowling about 10-15 K’s quicker.

Fast bowling is not always just about the hand release speed, some bowlers bowl 140 k’s regularly, but are floaty & ploppy in effect. This is particularly when they pitch the ball up.

The thing I like about Shamar Joseph is he is another skid on bowler except he has (at his quickest) a considerably quicker hand release speed. He was in the first test in Oz 137-142 but looked quicker for the reasons I have explained . Of course he went up an other level in that second test match. It makes me hopeful that he will turn out to be a very successful test bowler over a long period of time as was Wagner.

In reply to robbo

the perfect enforcer
could bowl long spells, liked using the old ball, aggressive with the short stuff, and made it all the more difficult for batters since he is left handed

Jarrod Kimber has a video on youtube breaking down what makes wagner special

a modern great

In reply to conman

hope jumpy take a look

good stuff

In reply to doosra

the stats say otherwise......i know the general benchmark of greatness is avg over 50 as a batsman and under 25 as a bowler....neil averages 27.....would have averaged a lot more if he didn't play 64% of his matches in NZ

In reply to doosra

Good bowler.

He was always at the batsmen and capable of some short quick aggressive spells or longer spells with more control.

In reply to Jumpstart

you mean you did not watch that video

context is everything dude

i am not talking about greatness, I am talking about your analyses...

go watch that video

In reply to Jumpstart

In reply to doosra

no they would not. no saying they're not very good bowlers but there is a benchmark for greatness. only ntini and johnson get a shoo-in because, in ntini's case, he was the first black cricketer from SA in a system that at that time, even a few years after the end of apartheid did not care about the development of black cricketers.....so what you got from ntini was him doing it virtually by himself. that is greatness. Johnson gets in because of the two years he haunted cricket for, between 2013 and 2015. none of the bowlers mentioned above have had the sort of impact johnson had on three great teams: england, world #1 South Africa and India(You're talking about 58 wickets at just over 15 for the ashes and SA series cumulatively). And india were fortunate in a way that that tour followed the death of Phillip Hughes, which curbed a lot of johnon's aggression significantly and eventually led to his retirement. most viewers said the last time they saw that level of intimidation was when the WI had the four horsemen