Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal revealed the relentless bouncers of Neil Wagner left him in discomfort state during his side’s tour in New Zealand in 2019.
Tamim disclosed the matter during his live show with New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson on Thursday.
“Kane, I just want to tell you something. I must not be the first batsman to tell it to you. Actually what Wagner is doing, I don’t like. I don’t like to play him,” Tamim told Williamson before giving the full explanation as to why he dislikes Wagner.
“During the Hamilton Test in 2019, he came up with a barrage of bouncers and he was doing it relentlessly. I was also ducking continuously.
After a while, he came to me and said ‘Are you ready to duck for two days in a row. Is your hamstring strong enough to duck for two days?” Tamim later wanted to know what made Wagner bowling, adopting such strategy. Williamson replied, he actually is not aware of Wagner’ strategy but said he is lucky to have him in the team.
“I myself also don’t know actually what he (Wagner) thinks when he is bowling. He is not tall enough but he has tremendous fitness. He doesn’t get tired. Just think, he told you that are you ready to duck for two days! That proves how confident he is about his fitness. As a captain, I am lucky to have him in the team,” Williamson said.
In the series in 2019, which was affected by terrorist attack, Wagener scalped 16 wickets in two Test matches against Bangladesh.
Not only Bangladesh, but also Wagner recently gave torrid time to world’s two best batsmen-Steven Smith and Virat Kohli, with his relentless bouncers. Smith, boasting the best Test average after Don Bardman was dismissed by him quite several times.
