With the 2023 English summer already fast approaching, we take a look at five players who could be set for a big year ahead.
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Liam Patterson-White – Nottinghamshire
The 24-year-old left-arm spinner has had two excellent seasons in a row for Nottinghamshire. He was a vital component of the team that won the Division Two title, has been heavily involved in England Lions set-ups of late, was part of a spin camp in the UAE in November, and has been selected for the Lions red-ball squad that will tour Sri Lanka at the end of this year.
His all-round abilities is what really sets him apart from other spinners in the country as he combines a first-class bowling average of 28.06 with a more than handy batting average of 26.02.
Tom Price – Gloucestershire
Price, 23, only played eight games last season, but impressed in a big way, with 32 wickets at an average of 20.09, including figures of 8-27 against Warwickshire.
He also contributed with the bat in late-order heroics across formats as a blossoming career began to take off. If he carries his 2022 form into 2023, he is likely to be a player you will be hearing a lot more about soon.
Tom Lawes – Surrey
Lawes played six games for the County Champions Surrey last year as he came from nowhere to end up finishing the season with 18 wickets at 23.72, the best average of any bowler in the squad. The teenager’s had started the season well down the ranks, behind Surrey’s arsenal of seam bowlers, but his rapid rise made him undroppable.
And whilst his red-ball bowling skills caught people’s attention first, he was just as fantastic with the bat against the white ball, with four fifties in seven innings. Lawes has only just turned 20, but is crafting a role for himself in Surrey’s team already.
Jacob Bethell – Warwickshire
Barbados-born Bethell shot into the headlines after a fantastic Under-19 World Cup for England a year ago, having debuted for Warwickshire in the last game of the 2021 season as a 17-year-old.
A loan deal to Gloucestershire saw him make his maiden first-class fifty, but his returns in professional cricket have so far been leaner than he would have liked. From 13 T20 games (including two for Welsh Fire in the Hundred), he averages 8.58. Nevertheless, he is a player of huge potential and one to look out for this season.
Tom Hartley – Lancashire
Hartley is one of only four players, along with Tom Abell, Sam Cook and Matt Fisher, to be named in both the red- and white-ball England Lions squads that will tour Sri Lanka in January and February. He had an excellent season for Lancashire that at times saw him picked as their premier spinner ahead of Matt Parkinson.
A tall left-armer, the 23-year-old’s T20 record is excellent. He is renowned for his accuracy with an economy rate of 7.57 in T20s and 2.21 in first-class.