New Zealand has produced many world-class cricketers whose contribution to world cricket is major and has made New Zealand one of the toughest teams to compete with around the globe. The current captains of the New Zealand team are Tim Southee for Test cricket and Kane Williamson for ODIs and T20s.
New Zealand have had many players from Asian origin as well; they have delivered their role of responsibility always at their best and made a mark in international cricket as well. These players give an added advantage to the New Zealand cricket team for playing international cricket in Asian countries and cope with the conditions better.
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Players from Asian origin in New Zealand cricket team :
Ted Baddock – is the all-rounder from Abbottabad, North-West Frontier Province, India, born in 1897. He was a right-handed batsman who contributed a total of 137 runs for NZC in 7 matches that he got to play for the Kiwis.
Along with that, he was a right-arm medium pacer who picked up a sum of 16 wickets in just 7 matches with the best bowling figures of 5/102.
Tom Puna – was a right-arm off-break bowler and a right-handed batsman of NZC. Tom was born in Surat Gujrat in 1929; his family migrated to New Zealand when he was eight. From there, he played domestic cricket and contributed to major victories for Plunket Shield. His best inning figures were 6 for 25 against Otago in Hamilton in 1966–67 (match figures of 59–29–66–9). At the time when he retired, he was the Northern Districts’ leading wicket-taker, with 223.
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Inderbir Singh Sodhi- is an Indian-origin bowler, born in Ludhiana, Punjab, in 1992. His family migrated here to Auckland, New Zealand. He started his training in childhood under Dipak Patel and Matt Horne. He left his school early to pursue cricket and got included in New Zealand’s ranks at just 20 years old. It’s been a decade since he started playing for NZC.
Sodhi has represented New Zealand for a total of 188 international matches in which he managed to pick 258 wickets with a stingy economy of 5.86. He holds the record for most wickets taken caught and bowled in T20Is, which is 10.
Jeet Raval – He is the school buddy of Ish Sodhi, born in Gujarat in the year 1988. Jeet was a left-handed opening batsman for NZC who managed to contribute a total of 1143 runs in test cricket in 24 matches that he got to play for the team in his career span of 2016-20. His average in test cricket is 30.07, and his highest score stands at 132.
Ajaz Patel – Ajaz Yunuz Patel was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in 1988. He is a slow left-arm orthodox spinner who is currently the fifth-highest wicket taker of the New Zealand cricket team. He has represented NZC in seven T20Is and sixteen test matches for New Zealand. He managed to pick seventy-one international wickets for the team.
Ajaz holds a bizarre record of having the best bowling figure while being on the losing side, that is against India in Wankhede, where he took 14 wickets in the single test match and unfortunately could not get the support from the fellow team members in contributing to the win. This match was played in 2021, 3rd December, against India in Mumbai.
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