Date of birth – 14 March 1991 Mansfield, Notts
Nottinghamshire First Class Debut – 27 March 2011 v MCC (Abu Dhabi)
From the outside it may appear that Jake Ball has had a meteoric rise through the ranks and been ushered straight to the very top level of the game.
To make that supposition would be grossly unfair though, because it takes away how hard Ball has worked to elevate his game from that of promising county seamer to a much-vaunted international strike bowler.
A product of the Welbeck Colliery Cricket Club, he has followed his uncle, Bruce French, into the international arena, so it was apt that the ECB gave the former England wicketkeeper the honour of presenting his nephew with his cherished cap, when he made his Test debut last summer.
Ball made his first-class debut in 2011 and had to be content with fleeting first team appearances until bursting his way into an automatic selection four years later.
Since then he has pushed his haul of red ball wickets past 100 from only 30 outings, as well as taking the first home hat-trick by a Nottinghamshire player since the turn of the century. That performance came against Middlesex, the impending champions, and rendered them on 0-3 in the first over.
His stellar 2016 produced 54 first-class wickets at an average of just 23 apiece, eye-catching figures which were rewarded with spots on England’s tours of Bangladesh and India.
On the first stage of that trip he returned a man-of-the-match winning performance of five for 51 on his ODI debut and in India he added to his growing reputation with further Test appearances.