Todd Astle calls it a day on his red-ball career

33-year-old New Zealand leg spinner Todd Astle has ended his professional red-ball career after he declared himself unavailable for the first-class series against India A starting on Thursday.

The Kiwi hinted at wanting to concentrate on his white-ball career as the reason for his decision. He has only been part of five test matches for the Black Caps after making his debut in 2012 vs Sri Lanka. He was part of the Sydney test against Australia earlier this month but decided to not prolong his red-ball career after

Astle mentioned that he was finding the preparations for red-ball cricket highly demanding and couldn't maintain the commitment that was required to play the longest format.

"Playing Test cricket was always the dream and I'm so honoured to have represented my country and province in the longest format of the game. As I've got to the back end of my career and I've have found it harder to maintain the level commitment required to be fully invested in this version of the game."

He maintained that red-ball cricket is the pinnacle and is proud of his achievements in this format with his first-class side Canterbury and the National test side.

"Red-ball cricket is the pinnacle, but also requires a lot of time and effort. I'm really proud of what I've been able to achieve with Canterbury and Black Caps."

He went on to add that he wants to give all his energy to the limited over formats and spend more time with his family and a new business he has started.

I've got to the back end of my career and I've have found it harder to maintain the level commitment required to be fully invested in this version of the game".

He is the highest wicket-taker for his first-class club Canterbury with a total of 303 first-class wickets for the side. They took to Twitter to congratulate their leading wicket-taker on an illustrious 15-year-old career.

Astle finishes as the top First-Class wicket-taker for Canterbury with 303 wickets and has five Tests to his name since debuting against Sri Lanka in 2012.https://t.co/Wu1yFPLIZb

— Canterbury Cricket (@CanterburyCrick) January 27, 2020

Selectors will now have to decide on his replacement for the upcoming test series against India later in February. Mitchell Santner might get the nod in the absence of Todd Astle.