5 current Test players who are underrated

#3 BJ Watling (New Zealand)

BJ Watling has emerged as an excellent wicketkeeper-batsman for New Zealand in Tests

The fact that BJ Watling is an underrated cricketer is an irony in itself, because the man he replaced in the team, at least behind the stumps, Brendon McCullum, has on most occasions taken the attention away from his junior successor. Now that McCullum has retired, New Zealand have already found a new prodigy in Kane Williamson, and the team is now known for possessing one of the modern-day greats.

However, Watling has soldiered on for seven years now, having made his debut in 2009. A gritty batsman, who bats at No. 7, has been the saviour for his team on more than one occasion.The best of them all, ironically, came in the game that's now remembered as the game in which McCullum was akin to a superhuman on the field.

Trailing by 246 runs in their second innings, in the second Test against India in Wellington in 2014, McCullum and Watling got together at 94/5 and stitched together a 342-run partnership and not only bail their side out of trouble but also put them in a comfortable position so as to put the visitors under pressure. While the then NZ captain stood out with his herculean knock of 302, thereby becoming the first Kiwi batsman to score a Test triple hundred, Watling’s knock of 124 was easily shoved to the hindsight.

It was that innings, probably, that gave Watling the confidence to bat prodigiously well in precarious situations, as he followed his 124 with a 142 vs Sri Lanka in 2015, once again in Wellington, also in the second innings when NZ were trailing by 135 runs in the 2nd Test. But once again, Watling was overshadowed by the new New Zealand captain, Williamson, who scored a magnificent 242* and helped his side pose a formidable total of 524/5 dec. in their second innings. New Zealand won both the games.

In June the same year, after England and New Zealand were tied after their first innings scores of 350 each, Watling rose to the occasion and smashed 120 runs off just 163 balls to help NZ post 454/8 in the second innings, and subsequently beat England by 199 runs in the 2nd Test at Headingley.