Thomas Ackland Blundell (born 1 September 1990) is a New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He made his international debut for the

New Zealand national cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

in January 2017. He also plays

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. In April 2019, he was named in New Zealand's

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) squad for the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

, despite being uncapped in an ODI match.

Background and domestic career

A scion of the ancient

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

gentry family, Blundell was educated at

Wellington College, Wellington Wellington College, is a state-run boys secondary school in Wellington, New Zealand. It is situated in 12 hectares of green belt land in the suburb of Mount Victoria, in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve and Government House. The school was fou ...

where he excelled at cricket. Named in New Zealand's squad for the

2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was the eighth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup and took place in New Zealand. Since 1998, the tournament has been held every 2 years. This edition had 16 teams competing in 44 matches between 15 a ...

, playing in one game, Blundell made his first-class debut in 2013. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Wellington for the 2018–19 season. In November 2020, in the third round of the 2020–21 Plunket Shield season, Blundell was given out

obstructing the field Obstructing the field is one of the ten methods of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Either batsman can be given out if he wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action. It is Law 37 of the Laws of c ...

International career

In January 2017 he was added to New Zealand's

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) squad as their

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

for their third match against Bangladesh, after

Luke Ronchi Luke Ronchi ( ; born 23 April 1981) is a New Zealand-Australian cricket coach and a former cricketer. He represented both the Australia national cricket team and New Zealand national cricket team in international cricket. Ronchi is the only play ...

was injured. On 8 January 2017 he made his T20I debut for New Zealand against Bangladesh. In January 2017, he was added to New Zealand's

(ODI) squad as their wicket-keeper against Australia, but he did not play. In November 2017, he was added to New Zealand's

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

squad for their series against the West Indies. He made his Test debut for New Zealand against the West Indies on 1 December 2017. He replaced the injured

BJ Watling Bradley-John Watling (born 9 July 1985), known as BJ Watling, is a South African-born former New Zealand international cricketer who has represented Northern Districts since December 2004. He made his Test debut in December 2009 and eight month ...

as the wicket-keeper, scoring 107

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

which was the highest Test score by a New Zealand wicket-keeper on debut. He also became the first wicket-keeper since

Matt Prior Matthew James Prior (born 26 February 1982) is a South African-born English former cricketer, who played for England in Test cricket and for Sussex County Cricket Club in domestic cricket. He was a wicket-keeper and his aggressive right-handed ...

in 2007 to score a century on Test debut. In April 2019, he was named in New Zealand's squad for the

. The

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) named him as one of the five surprise picks for the tournament. However, he did not play a match during the tournament. The following month, he was one of twenty players to be awarded a new contract for the 2019–20 season by

New Zealand Cricket New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New Z ...

. In January 2020, Blundell was named in New Zealand's

(ODI) squad for their series against India. He made his ODI debut for New Zealand, against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, on 5 February 2020. On 2 December 2020, he was named as wicket-keeper for the Test squad for their home series against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, replacing

, who suffered an injury.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blundell, Tom 1990 births Living people New Zealand people of English descent People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) Wellington cricketers Cricketers from Wellington City New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup Wicket-keepers