Hain’s 161* off 141 balls for Warwickshire in a List A match against Worcestershire on Sunday means he now has a better career List A average than Virat Kohli, and the best average of anyone to have played more than 50 games.
Batting at number three, he came to the crease with the scorecard showing 17-1. He marshalled the innings from there, bringing his fifty up off 69 balls and his hundred off 110 balls. Hain then flicked the switch and accelerated, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground. He finished on Warwickshire’s second highest List A score of all-time, only behind West Indies legend Alvin Kallicharran’s 206 against Oxfordshire in 1984, as his side scored 100 off the final 10 overs of their innings.
Who is he?
Born in Hong Kong to two English parents, Hain spent most of his youth growing up in Queensland, Australia. He made his way into the Australia under 19s when he was just 16 years old but his heart lay elsewhere. “I was always set to play in England, ever since I was 14,” he said.
Tough times
While he made a record-breaking start to his first-class cricket career, he has struggled in seasons since to rediscover that kind of form. 2016 and 2017 brought him averages of just 22.75 and 15.42 respectively in Division One of the County Championship. His 2018 average of 35.37 is closer to where he’ll want to be, but he hasn’t scored a century in the competition since 2016. In 2018, ex-Warwickshire director of sport and current England Men’s managing director of cricket Ashley Giles said this drop in red-ball production was because Hain “gets his balance wrong at times, which affects his alignment.”
Challenges
With the retirement of Jonathan Trott and the injury to Ian Bell, Hain’s place in an increasingly youthful Warwickshire side is sealed. His immediate challenge is trying to turn around Warwickshire’s campaign in the Royal London One-Day Cup. They currently sit seventh in the North Group with only one win (Hain-inspired) in five games.
Rediscovering his form in the County Championship will be next on his agenda, and no doubt he will be burning to break his run of three seasons without a hundred in the competition.
What a day @WarwickshireCCC‘s Sam Hain is having!
First with the bat he cracks 161* off 141 balls, finishing with a List A average of 58.52, a world record, and then in the field he pulls off this Jonty Rhodes-esque run out!
What a player!pic.twitter.com/FomcpjhynE
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) April 28, 2019
The Final Word
“If he carries on the work he’s done this winter, I have no doubt he’ll fly and have a fantastic career in red-ball cricket. That is his final frontier. If he can crack that, I’m a big believer that he’ll play red-ball cricket for England within 12 months.” – Ashley Giles, speaking in March 2018.
