Watching the tremendous effort that Darren Pattinson puts into every delivery, it’s no real surprise that the big fast bowler has undergone his fair share of injuries over the past two years and he’ll begin the 2012 season recuperating from a stress fracture of the back.

Grimsby-born, Darren joined Notts at the start of the 2008 summer and was immediately fast-tracked into the England Test team. Whilst his extraordinary selection, after just six championship matches, proved to be a one-off, he has confirmed himself as the spearhead of the Nottinghamshire attack ever since.

Darren’s haul of 23 wickets in 16 Twenty20 matches last season is a new best for the county in a single season and contained figures of 5-25 against Warwickshire, only the second bowler after Richard Logan to claim five wickets in an innings in the competition.

A championship-winner with Notts in 2010, Darren spends the winter months in Australia, playing for Victoria alongside his brother. When James Pattinson made his Test match debut for Australia in December 2011 it meant that for the first time in more than a century two brothers had represented different countries in Tests.