Otago wonderkid Hugo Bogue is poised to make his list A debut against Central Districts in Nelson today.
The Queenstown teenager was on the team list for the match against Canterbury earlier in the week, but the fixture was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The hard-hitting opener, who turns 18 later this month, will be making one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts in many a year.
The recent Wakatipu High School graduate captured the public’s attention with a staggering knock of 295 not out in a 40-over game against St Thomas of Canterbury College in Oamaru in 2022.
The right-hander flogged 34 fours and 13 sixes and got himself in the Otago Daily Times for the extraordinary feat. He was 14.
The headlines kept coming.
Bogue clobbered 143 against Central Districts in the national under-19 tournament in December 2023, and 108 against Wellington at the under-17 event a month later.
He posted more runs in both tournaments the following summer, whacking two hundreds in the under-17 competition and another century at under-19 level.
Last season, he made a century on debut for Albion in the Dunedin premier grade, and he notched another triple-figure score in the national under-19 tournament this season.
He was selected in the New Zealand squad alongside Otago team-mates Mason Clarke and Tom Jones to compete at the under-19 world cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia this year.
New Zealand performed poorly at the tournament, but Bogue’s confidence remains intact.
He is an assured young man, and must have a bat the size of Kanye West’s ego given how many runs he has flayed, right?
Wrong. His bat is tiny.
He plays with a short blade bat — honestly, it is like a child’s bat — and wields it with indiscriminate power.
Bogue likes to get down the wicket, too.
There is more than a bit of Brendon McCullum about his game, so it is not a surprise to hear him mention the architect of Bazball as a player he admired.
‘‘I do love the way Brendon McCullum went about it,’’ he said.
‘‘I think if I would want to play cricket like anyone, I’d probably take him.’’
Bogue is just at the beginning of his cricket journey, but he is almost undaunted by the challenge ahead.
‘‘I think this year something’s sort of clicked for me, which is nice. And then I’ve seen success in the under-19 stuff in the national tournament, and then just coming off the back of the world cup, which is awesome.’’
Bogue was born in Australia, but his parents are New Zealanders and moved back home when he was 8.
His talent was obvious, and by the time he was 14, he was making regular trips to Dunedin to attend training sessions with Clarke, 18, who made his list A and T20 debut in February last year.
‘‘We’d come down here and train for a night and then go back home and go to school.’’
When he got the call-up for the game against Canterbury, he could not stop smiling all day.
Rain ruined that fixture and there is some rain forecast in Nelson today, which has not dampened his enthusiasm.
‘‘It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid and all through the pathway stuff. It’s like that’s where I want to be.’’
Even if that is facing Black Caps seamer Blair Tickner, who has returned from a shoulder injury.
Tickner bowls at a brisk pace and gets good bounce. He was a handful during the ODI series against England, picking up eight wickets in two games.
Bogue expects to open for Otago and that means surviving a spell from Tickner. That would plant a seed of doubt in even the most confident.
‘‘I’m sort of putting my trust in the fact that I wouldn’t be picked if I wasn’t good enough to face them.
‘‘But obviously Blair Tickner plays for the Black Caps. He is a tall dude [and he] gets a lot of bounce.
‘‘I think he’d probably be the one I’m looking out for. Jayden Lennox as well.’’
