Trent Boult

With the ability to swing the ball both ways, left-armer Trent Boult possesses phenomenal ability when running in through the 30 yards. Seaming conditions obviously aided his style of bowling but the fact that he can make the ball talk on tracks which virtually had nothing in them, makes him a significant threat to batsmen all around the world.

Born in Rotorua, Boult jumped onto the international stage when he was invited to the New Zealand A team for the 2007 winter training squad in Lincoln. He was a typical Kiwi lad, enjoying the water sports in his country like most people did. Cricket, though, was where his wandering heart eventually landed upon. At just 17 years of age, he became the fastest bowler in the secondary school in the country, showing his glaringly evident skills. In 2008, one year later, he was selected for the New Zealand U-19 team that would go on to play the World Cup. He was always hanging around the edges, waiting for the chance to come knocking on his door. It was a long wait but his debut came in 2011 against Australia in Hobart. He picked up 4 wickets in that game, helping his side win a Test Down Under for the first time since 1985.

Boult’s career didn’t exactly take off as he’d have liked to. A couple of years before making his Test debut, he suffered a major stress fracture on his back, which was largely down to his tinkered bowling action. So, he took help from one of his idols and ex-Kiwi great Shane Bond. He went back to his old bowling action which yielded him much success in his younger days and that bettered him. He took his time to improve himself physically, conditioned his body well and got ready for the big stage. Had a decent start to his would-be-illustrious career in whites, scalping 17 wickets in his first 6 games, against teams like Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe and India. He put in consistent performances throughout but his moment to shine came in 2013 against the Windies at the Basin Reserve where he got his maiden ten-wicket haul in Tests.

Trent’s been highly rated by former New Zealand great Sir Richard Hadlee, who thinks he’s one of the best new ball bowlers the Kiwis have ever had. He formed one half of the deadly duo with good friend Tim Southee, a pair which was the focal point of many wins they achieved. In 2014, which was Black Caps’ best Test year, the pair collected 67 out of 143 wickets in that year – almost half of the total. However, this came about because of a transformation inspired by Brendon McCullum when he took over as skipper. McCullum always had a taste for the attacking flavour and with Boult collecting wickets like a hunter on the top of his game, he couldn’t be ignored for too long, the combination was a perfect match. Due to the Kiwis lack of quality in pace at the time, Trent Boult spearheaded the attack along with Southee and come the 2015 World Cup, he ended up as the joint-highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 22 wickets to his name. He was one of the key figures in New Zealand making it to their first ever World Cup final.

Boult didn’t feature in the 2016 edition of the World T20, but that had nothing to do with his ability and everything to do with New Zealand’s pragmatic approach to things. He was snapped up by Hyderabad in 2015, before eventually making the switch to Kolkata in 2017, both being big money signings. In the following year, Delhi bagged his services and in spite of his team not faring well, he played a good hand and finished with 18 wickets. He was picked up by Mumbai in the 2020 auction for 3.2 crores.