Todd Astle

Starting his age group level cricket as an opening batsman, Todd Astle had a torrid time with the bat while graduating to the next level and hence decided to change his priority and became a leg spinner. Within a very short span of time, he showcased his skills in arguably one of the most difficult traits in cricket and became an integral part of the New Zealand domestic circuit, and started making rapid strides. 

However, it meant that his batting went down the wire but still managed to rack up some useful knocks in the lower order. Starting off as a batsman meant that he had the ability to strike some lusty blows towards the back end of the innings. In addition to his batting and bowling prowess, he is also a brilliant fielder. He was tailor-made for the shorter formats but it was in the longest format where he got his maiden call-up as an international cricketer. He was called up in the New Zealand Test squad as a replacement for the veteran Daniel Vettori during New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2012-13. 

Astle’s debut was far from impressive and his ordinary performances meant, he was off the selection radar in the next few years and only made a return to the international fold following some exceptional performances in the domestic circuit in the 2016-17 season. Pretty soon he graduated himself into a limited-overs cricketer as well making his ODI and T20 debut in a few month’s time. Astle has only played a handful of international matches so far and given his age, he might not be in the national reckoning in the future years unless he puts up some stellar performances on a consistent basis. 

Astle first rose into prominence while plying his trade for Canterbury back in 2004-05 when he shared a sensational stand of 374 runs with opening partner Kieryn Ambler which was a record in New Zealand U 19 cricket. Soon he was rewarded for his performances with a first-class debut for Canterbury against Wellington in the State Championship in 2004-05.