A late starter at international level, 29 year-old Rob Nicol is a relatively new BLACKCAP in the squad. New or not, he has made an immediate impact on the big stage, especially in the shorter formats.

First and foremost Nicol is a right-handed opening batsman, but has also proven himself to be a very useful right-arm offbreak bowler.

He played eight seasons for Auckl before switching to arch rivals Canterbury in 2009. While he was one of Auckland’s most consistent batsmen, Rob attributes his promotion to the national squad to his move down south. The shift certainly has been successful. He was Canterbury's leading run-scorer in the 2009-10 Twenty20 HRV Cup, with 237 runs at a strike-rate of 127.41.

It was this sort of form which saw him included in the New Zealand Twenty20 team to take on Sri Lanka in 2010. Things didn’t go as well as he would have liked, but one year on he played Zimbabwe in his first One Day International and things went considerably better. Rob became the seventh player ever to score a ton on ODI debut, his 108 coming off 131 deliveries.

Since then Rob has featured numerous times in both the ODI and Twenty20 team. He also got an opportunity against South Africa in two Test matches, but had limited success. Rob was then picked for the 2012 tour of West Indies, but only as part of the limited over’s squads.

Away from cricket Rob is a keen follower of football and supports Middlesborough FC.