He’s Hungry And Ready To Go - BJ Watling Puts His Faith In Tom Blundell For Taking Wicket-Keeping Duties

BJ Watling, who retired as New Zealand‘s most successful wicket-keeper, has named Tom Blundell as the unequivocal choice for taking over the role of the wicketkeeper-batsman in the Test side.

In the Test series versus England preceding the WTC Final against India, Blundell was replaced as an opener by Devon Conway. However, the 30-year-old keeper is now set to take the middle-order position emptied by BJ Watling. Blundell got a feel of this role in the second Test in Birmingham when BJ Watling was out injured; the former impressed the latter with his keeping against the moving Dukes ball.

Blundell has played 11 Tests and averages 38.13 in it, with a couple of hundreds; there is little doubt over his wicket-keeping abilities.

“I think we all know Tom [Blundell] is ready to go. He’s scored two fantastic hundreds and in the game he played against England, I thought his keeping was excellent. It’s not easy with the Dukes ball moving around and he did an outstanding job and took some excellent catches. I have full faith in Tom, he’s hungry and he’s ready to go,” BJ Watling told 1 NEWS from his hotel room where he is isolating.

I’m glad we were able to get the job done: BJ Watling

BJ Watling, who retired with 260 dismissals as a keeper (most for a Kiwi) in his 12-year long career, is elated to have finished on a high after defeating the Asian giants in the WTC Final last week. The 35-year-old, who scored 3790 runs in 75 Tests, says that his retirement is confirmed and won’t be retracting it.

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