Player:

A dynamic wicket-keeper batsman who burst into the England domestic scene in 2017, Tom Banton is a rising star for Somerset. Extremely unorthodox with the willow and lightning-quick behind the sticks, he’s already been touted as a potential successor to Jos Buttler. A product of the Warwickshire system and thereafter, the England U19, Banton’s skill set was explicitly obvious to all those who saw him play and he landed a contract at Somerset for the T20 blast in the 2017-18 season. Next year, he debuted in other formats as well and has been a regular for his county ever since. At this point, Banton looks ready made for white-ball cricket and a phenomenal T20 Blast campaign in 2019 showed how much he had progressed as a player. It wasn’t just the runs but also the manner in which he was manipulating the field with unconventional strokes that caught the eye. Fittingly, he found himself picked for the national side in the shortest format when they toured New Zealand in late 2019. Still early days in his career but if groomed well, there’s no denying that Banton will be England’s next superstar.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan