The rising talent Mark Chapman looks forward to break it into the NZ Test team

One of the promising talents, Mark Chapman, who began his career with Hong Kong cricket team, is now part of New Zealand’s cricketing circuit and is looking forward to making it to the red-ball setup of the nation.

Back in 2015, the Southpaw was named the vice-captain of Hong Kong cricket team. Although, he continued to play for the team for a few years, later on, Chapman moved to New Zealand to further fulfill his dream of playing cricket. After achieving some marvelous feats whilst playing for Hong Kong, he eventually got a chance to make his T20I debut for New Zealand in February 2018. A fortnight later, he finally made his ODI debut as well.

Howbeit, after his debut, the 25-year hasn’t got any other chance of representing New Zealand in international colours. Nonetheless, he hasn’t lost hopes and believes that he can still make it big. In a recent interview, Chapman talked about many such things. At first, he discussed his cricketing journey from the streets of Hong Kong to New Zealand’s domestic circuit. He also named his cricketing heroes and the ones who inspired him to play the game.

“I used to love watching Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori as a young boy. I can’t say that I modelled my technique around any one player, but I definitely took inspiration from the likes of Fleming and Kumar Sangakkara. Yes, growing up in Hong Kong I always supported the Black Caps and I took every opportunity I could to watch them. As a young boy I dreamt one day that I would represent New Zealand,” Chapman told Sports Cafe, in a recent interview.

‘I’ve worked really hard on my red-ball game’

While playing white-ball cricket for the Plunket Shield, Chapman amassed 270 runs at a dashing average of 54 in the previous season. The Hong Kong-born has already shown glimpses of glory in limited-overs cricket while playing for Hong Kong as well as NZ. Meanwhile, going further, the lad is now looking forward to breaking into the red-ball side of the Kiwis.

In the interview, the ace batsman told that Test cricket and Test championship are also on his radar and he is working hard to make sure that he fulfils his bigger goal i.e. to represent New Zealand in test colours.

“I’ve worked really hard on my red ball game the past couple of seasons, and it’s been great to see some progress from the work I’ve put in. With Hong Kong it was predominantly short-form cricket, so the longer form is something I’ve had to learn on the go, ” the Southpaw was quoted.

“Test Cricket and the Test Championship is definitely on my radar. The Black Caps test team is reasonably settled at the present, but I will be working and pushing to make sure I’m a strong candidate when an opportunity presents itself,” he added.