Cricket: Black Caps bowler Neil Wagner talks about his heroic performance in tryouts against Pakistan

The hero of the Black Caps’ first test win over Pakistan has opened up about the experience of playing with the pain of two broken fingers.

Neil Wagner broke his toes while hitting during New Zealand’s first inning, which opened the test match, meaning he threw all 49 overs of the match while in pain.

Both captains involved in the game, Kane Williamson and Mohammad Rizwan, expressed their amazement at Wagner’s feats with the ball, giving him 4-105 figures, while his technical team was equally impressed.

Yet Wagner himself has been silent until now about the harrowing experience of waking up in pain and doubting whether he could play for his country.

“On the last day I couldn’t walk to get out of bed,” he told TVNZ 1 News.

“I fell on the ground quite frustrated and quite angry, and I just wanted to go out and play.

“And while I was trying to walk, the pain got worse and worse, and I took the frozen vegetables out of the refrigerator and a couple of bags of ice and tried to ice it a couple of times.”

However, nothing Wagner could do on his own could ease that pain and he eventually underwent the trainer and rounds of pain reliever injections.

“Around the twelfth injection of the day, I started screaming and screaming a bit and chewing on the towel,” he says.

“The injections helped for about two hours, then you had to try to bite your teeth, clench and pass.”

While many other players in his situation would have quit at the time, Wagner moved on. He’s a test match specialist, and doesn’t appear in shorter forms of the game for New Zealand, despite posting stats comparable to team regulars, meaning these matches mean more to him than most of the team. .

“The burning desire to help the team is there, you know, and it kind of helps you get through it.”

That motivation to play for his teammates and his country is evident, but his thirst for terrain is just as powerful and has resulted in him now being New Zealand’s best bowler, appearing at number three in the latest world rankings.

“Just get a wicket,” Wagner laughs.

“That’s it. I kept walking back to my goal saying to myself, ‘Just a wicket, just a wicket.’

Instead, he took four, bringing his career total to 219 on an average (26.32) second only to Sir Richard Hadlee among those who have surpassed 200 wickets.

While the toes are expected to take six weeks to heal, Wagner’s role with the Black Caps appears to have ended over the summer with no more test matches, a fact that pains the passionate cricketer.

“I have a bit of FOMO.”