OTD New Zealand’s star batter Nathan Astle was born in 1972

Nathan Astle was one of the key players for New Zealand for more than a decade. The Kiwis saw the right-handed batter put many bowling attacks to the sword with his blistering batting.

During a Test match versus England in 2002, Nathan Astle scored the fastest-ever double ton in Test cricket. The knock came off just 153 balls as the Kiwis nearly pulled off a great chase to upset the England side.

Just 1 month before the 2007 ODI World Cup, Nathan Astle shocked the world. The right-handed batter decided to retire at the age of 35. It was a huge shock for Stephen Fleming who would have wanted his most explosive batter to have another crack at the title.

Nathan Astle: The Kiwi who shocked the world

The world first heard about Nathan Astle when he made his ODI debut against West Indies in Auckland in 1995. In his first game, the young batter was slotted at number six as he scored 25 off 23 balls.

Kiwis lost the game but Astle had given the world enough indication about his talents. His first ODI ton came in Nagpur vs India as he scored 114 off 128 balls as the visitors won by 99 runs.

Test debut for Nathan Astle came against Zimbabwe at home in early 1996. The Kiwi scored 18 and 32 with the bat. In the next few years, Astle became a key part of the Kiwi side both home and away across all formats. His final game in the longest format was against Sri Lanka where Astle scored 17 and 9 as his team lost the match by 217 runs.

By the time he ended his Test career, Nathan Astle had played 81 matches and scored 4702 runs. He hit 11 centuries and 24 fifties with an average of 37 and also picked 51 wickets with a best of 3/27. In the ODI format, Astle played 223 games scoring 7090 runs with a best of 145 which was one of the 16 centuries he hit along with 41 half-centuries with an average of 34 along with 99 wickets.