Domestic and T20 Franchise Career

James Neesham Cricket started his top-flight career with Auckland, but a move to the Otago Volts worked well for him as he made some key contributions in the 50-over format during the 2011-12 season, notching three 40-plus points in seven innings. all of them get more than one run a ball. He was also among the wickets, taking a best 5 for 44 against Wellington and 4 for 23 against Canterbury. The rewards soon came as he was included in the limited manpower squad for the South Africa tour.

James Neesham IPL Selected in the Delhi Daredevils IPL for Season 7, Neesham played for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the 2014 Caribbean Premier League and for Derbyshire in England's NatWest t20 Blast 2016. In June 2017 he signed to represent the Kent at the 2017 NatWest t20 Blast County Cricket Club and made his debut in Kent's opening game of the tournament in July.

In June 2018, Neesham signed a contract with Wellington for the 2018–19 season.

In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament.

In the 2020 IPL auction, he was bought by the Kings XI Punjab and in 2021 was bought by Mumbai Indians. In February 2022, he was bought by the Rajasthan Royals in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament.

International Career

Neesham made his Test debut against India, scoring an unbeaten 137, the highest score on debut by a Test number 8 batsman. In June 2014, he made a century in his second test against the West Indies, becoming the first New Zealander to score centuries in his first two matches.

Neesham was named in New Zealand's 15 man squad for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. On 3 January 2019, in the first ODI against Sri Lanka,

Neesham scored 34 runs in one over, including five sixes. This was the most runs scored in one over by a New Zealand batsman in an ODI match.

In April 2019, he was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 1 June 2019, in New Zealand's first match of the World Cup, Neesham played in his 50th ODI. In New Zealand's match against Afghanistan, Neesham took his first five-wicket haul and his 50th wicket in ODIs. In the 2019 Cricket World Cup semifinal, Neesham took the final wicket, and a stunning catch to dismiss Dinesh Karthik off Matt Henry's delivery. Before the World Cup Neesham revealed that he had considered retiring from international cricket 18 months prior due to poor form and injury problems but Heath Mills, the then CEO of the New Zealand Players Association, advised him to take a break from cricket for 3–4 weeks and not to retire.

In August 2021, Neesham was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.