Nathan Astle

Nathan Astle is one of New Zealand's most explosive batsmen and arguably one of their best in the shorter format of the game. He started his cricket career at East Christchurch Shirley, a cricket club which has produced quite a few renowned cricketers for the Kiwis. After a few quiet seasons, he first came into the limelight in the 1994-95 season where he averaged 55.25 and scored a staggering 663 runs for Canterbury.

He was rewarded for his excellent performance and was selected in the New Zealand ODI squad in 1995 against the Windies at the age of 24. Astle showed real signs of his talent against the Lankans where he played a match-winning 95. A tame start to the series against India after that was ended on a high by him as he managed to score his first ODI ton. He soon got selected in the Test team but his first outing wasn't a memorable one, getting only 77 runs against Zimbabwe in four innings.

Astle, however, kept performing decently in the shorter version and it landed him a spot in the 1996 World Cup squad. Although, he failed to make an impression despite scoring a century in his first game against England. Even after failing to make an impact in a big tournament, the selectors showed faith in him and he was selected for the two-match Test series in West Indies. That is when Nathan Astle started to flourish. He smashed two hundreds on that tour and bracketed himself as one of the top batsmen New Zealand ever produced.

Nathan Astle continued playing his attacking cricket even in the longest format where he still holds the record for the fastest double century and also the second highest fourth innings score (222), chasing a mammoth 550 against England, which New Zealand eventually lost by 98 runs. Along with being a well accomplished batsman, he was handy with the ball too, bowling his dibbly-dobblies to good effect.

His retirement came as a surprise to many as he decided to hang his boots just before the 2007 World Cup due to lack of motivation. Astle enjoyed an illustrious 12 years in international cricket and is one of the Kiwi greats. His biggest accomplishment was winning the Champions Trophy in 2000, the only ICC trophy New Zealand ever won in the past and during his playing days..