Tom Blundell

An aggressive wicket-keeper batsman with a wide range of stroke play and a stylish technique, Tom Blundell is a professional cricketer for the New Zealand cricket team and Wellington.

Blundell was a key man in the New Zealand U-19 squad alongside Jimmy Neesham, Tom Latham and Doug Bracewell.

Blundell made his first-class debut against Auckland on February 7, 2013 and later that month he also made his List A debut against Otago on February 26.

After a few years of disappointment in the domestic circuit, his breakthrough season came in 2015 when the Wellington-born prospect made an advent in all forms of domestic cricket and stockpiled 1073 runs in 28 matches. Subsequently, it was all an uphill from Blundell in the 2016-17 season when he scored 537 runs in 17 matches and his 237 runs from 9 innings in the Super Smash was the highest by any wicket-keeper batsman in 2016-17.

Tom Blundell’s explosive arrival helped him summon his maiden call up for the Twenty20 squad against Bangladesh in January 2017 after Luke Ronchi got injured. Blundell made his debut on January 8, 2017 against Bangladesh.  A few weeks later, he got a call from the selectors for the ODI series against Australia, but the arrival of Tom Latham hampered his chances in the playing XI. Blundell’s career-defining moment came when he made his Test debut a historic one against the touring West Indies side on December 1, 2017. On his debut, he scored an unbeaten 107 and while doing so became the first wicket-keeper from New Zealand to score a ton on his debut and the only wicket-keeper after Matt Prior to do so.

Haven’t played any single ODI match yet, Blundell was added to New Zealand’s squad before the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, and not to anyone’s amaze ICC picked him as one of the five surprise picks for the tournament. Nonetheless, with Luke Ronchi in the squad, he didn’t get a chance to feature in the World Cup. On February 5, 2020, Tom Blundell made his ODI debut against India but his batting woes saw him out of the squad after the series.  Recently, in the Plunket Shield, Blundell was given out for obstructing the field when he used his hand to divert the ball from the stumps while batting. He became the second player after John Hayes in history to get out in this fashion.

Luke Ronchi and Bj Watling, both being injury-prone in recent times, the only challenge Blundell faces in the current New Zealand squad is his U-19 teammate Tom Latham but with the stroking ability and inventiveness that Blundell possesses, he might be a regular in the shorter formats of the game.

(As of March 2021)