After playing for more than a decade for the Auckland side, Reece Young decided to move to Canterbury in 2010. The presence of keeper Gareth Hopkins in his club side meant that wicket keeping duties were forever shared which were jeopardizing his chances to play for the national team as a specialist keeper. The move paid off as ironically in late 2010, he replaced his former team mate Hopkins for New Zealand’s Test series against Pakistan.

In his time at Auckland, the glove-man was highly acclaimed for his wicket-keeping skills but often criticised for his lack of tall scores. However those notions were changed in the 2008-09 domestic season where he was one of Auckland’s most consistent batsmen which consequently earned him a call-up to the national side for the 2009 Test tour of Sri Lanka. Though the actual debut didn’t happen, he had his first taste of international cricket keeping wickets for New Zealand in the first Test at Galle after regular keeper Brendon McCullum and backup Jesse Ryder were both diagnosed with a stomach bug.

With Brendon McCullum reluctant to keep in Tests, Young and the others of his ilk have a chance of proving themselves in the longer format which they can hopefully use to stake a claim in the shorter forms of the game like ODIs and T20Is.