Sonny Baker came into Hampshire's County Championship side this season already with significant backing behind him.
Having been away with England Lions over the winter, making his first-class debut and taking five-for against a Cricket Australia XI, he was rewarded with an ECB development contract. The wording of the press release which accompanied his contract announcement drew attention.
Lions coach, Andrew Flintoff, was quoted in the release as saying: "It's been an absolute pleasure to see Sonny thrive over the winter. He and I are very different in character and personality, but it has been a delight to see the pride he takes in wearing the Three Lions, the energy he brings to every ball, and the theatre and magic he creates on the pitch."
Flintoff certainly holds a unique position as a character in English cricket, and it's not hard to imagine how different a 22-year-old Flintoff would have been to Baker at his current age. Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast last month, Baker said: "I think Fred was getting across my mannerisms. I'll always bring my notebook around with me, I'll do things to the Nth degree and I'm very big on recovery stuff.
"Even my boots, I've got to get them re-soled to have six [spikes] at the back on the left foot and not as many on the right. I try and get everything done to as much of a professional degree as I possibly can. So I think Fred was more having a bit of a joke saying, 'I could have done with a bit of that'."
Sonny Baker took three wickets on his County Championship debut last week, dismissing Jonny Bairstow twice 🔥
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) April 9, 2025
The 90mph England prospect spoke to @Yas_Wisden before the season about how he uses spreadsheets and notebooks to improve his game 📒
🤝 @remitly pic.twitter.com/3V5iJUmIBp
The idea of a young Flintoff carrying a notebook around with him that lists the minutiae of his training sessions or, as Baker also revealed, having an Excel spreadsheet to track his workload, puts the statement into more context.
But, beyond the attention to detail Baker puts into his development, its effects on the pitch are the real marker of the speed at which he's caught England eyes.
In the first round of the season, Baker made headlines by dismissing Jonny Bairstow twice on Championship debut. While there was an element of fortune in the first dismissal – Bairstow was briefly distracted by a bee before slicing a wide delivery to third man – the second was a scorcher that pegged back middle stump.
A few days later at The Oval, there was more of why Baker is so highly rated on display. Beyond his capabilities of brushing 90mph on the speed gun, his tenacity was more at the fore in South London. There was little reward in the first innings, just the wicket of Matthew Fisher caught and bowled at the end of the innings. But, he continually created chances throughout the day, mixing up his lengths and banging the ball into the pitch, and should have had Dom Sibley well short of the hundred he went on to reach.
If he was frustrated at the end of day one, he made up for his lack of reward in the second innings, in which he took five wickets. As Surrey tried to set up a declaration at the end of day three, they were met with Baker bowling to a pinpoint plan. Having snared Jamie Smith eying up a century, and got Dan Lawrence, he bowled Jordan Clark two short balls down the leg side before castling his stumps with a zinging yorker. He repeated the trick to Fisher in his next over and got Dan Worrall caught behind next ball to set-up a hat-trick delivery. From the dismissal of Smith to Surrey's declaration, Baker bowled 26 deliveries and took five wickets.
That ability to change the game is one highly prized by England, and the X-factor Baker brought late in the day through speed and accuracy shows why he was awarded a development contract. With the injuries plaguing their pace attack, they're attributes that could tempt them to bring Baker into the fold sooner rather than later. Four days after the Surrey game, Baker was rested by the ECB for Hampshire's fixture against Somerset.
However, when a new quick comes onto the scene and makes early waves, it's important not to overstate their current value while rightly getting excited at their potential. There were times at The Oval that the extra but not extreme pace Baker brought, and the lengths he bowled, made it easy to score. He's not in the same bracket of rapid as someone like a Mark Wood, and his speeds went up and down as you would expect over the course of the game.
The sample size to work with also makes it impossible to estimate Baker's true abilities at this time. Last summer, England selected Josh Hull to make his Test debut, blooding a player not yet ready for international honours at an early stage of their career. Hull was highly rated, tall and with all the attributes England wanted at that time in a new bowler coming through. After looking understandably out of his depth on debut, Hull hasn't featured for England since and is currently not involved in the County Championship for Leicestershire.
There's value to the fast track, blooding a player who might be called upon if an injury crisis spirals, and Baker has so far met every challenge levied at him. But there's also reason for caution over taking a punt on raw talent. Whichever way England choose to go, the next few weeks will reveal what their bowling pool for the summer looks like, and whether Baker's rapid rise will go up another gear.
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