Neil Wagner: The Ultramodernist

Here is that video essay on the great man you never knew you wanted

A few years back I tweeted about how good Neil Wagner was, and people flat out refused to accept it.

Jarrod Kimber @ajarrodkimber

Time to lick at the wonderful Neil Wagner lollipop: 82 wickets in the last three years. At 23. Only old mates Jadeja and Anderson have better ave with 50+ wickets. Strikes ever 47 balls in that period. Only Starc (only Starc) and only Rabda (only Rabada) strike quicker.

And I got it. He was getting wickets a weird way, people didn’t like it that much, and it had only been a couple of years.

Now he has been dominating for years. He’s currently the second-ranked Test bowler, and also NZ’s second quickest to 200 wickets. I mean, Neil Wagner is a thing.

So I have been meaning to do something on him for a long time, and finally, I got around to it. Here is my second video essay, on the greatest slow-bouncing left-armed seamer cricket has ever had.

In it I compare him to another Wagner, look at how unlikely it would be for him to make it in South Africa, deep dive on the bouncers and talk about his long spells. There is no one else like him, and he’s wonderfully interesting.