Daniel Vettori's debut in International Cricket
Daniel Vettori while making his debut for New Zeland became the youngest debutant for his team at the age of 18. He played in the second Test against England in the 1996-97 series and batted at number 11 first before coming on to bowl. It’s hard to believ e that he started batting so low initially in his career when you consider the fact that he later on became an important batsman for the team sometimes even coming out to bat at number 6. He made just 3 runs on that day as his side were bowled out for just 124 in the first innnings. He toiled hard and bowled 34.3 overs in his very first outing with the ball and managed to pick up Nasser Hussain and Andrew Caddick. Facing a stiff task in the second innings, the kiwis surrendered meekly again with Vettori remaining unbeaten on 2. England managed to win big but New Zealand knew that this spectacled young guy had a lot of talent to carry them forward.
He did exactly that and the very next month, he also made his ODI debut at Christchurch against Sri Lanka. This resulted in a loss as well as the kiwis lost by six wickets. Vettori made 4 runs with the bat and bowled just 2 overs conceding 21 runs. But these did not deter him as he went on to have a successful career with New Zealand and despite taking a break away from the game now, he is widely expected to make a comeback sooner. He is already the most capped New Zealand Test Cricketer and also became only the 8th man to ever achieve the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets in Test Cricket.
He has rescued his side many a time with the bat especially in Test Cricket, thus becoming New Zealand’s most valuable player in the format as he also bowls the most number of overs usually in an innings. He transformed himself in to a very reliable all-rounder scoring 6 Test tons to go with 20 five wicket hauls. Later on in T20 Cricket, he became one of the hardest bowlers to score runs off as he had the ability to bowl miserly spells. Hopefully he comes back to lead New Zealand’s charge towards their first 50 over World title when they co host the tournament alongside Australia next year.