Fox Cricket have rated Fergus O’Neill as the best current Australian cricketer under the age of 25.

The seam-bowling all-rounder, 24, has re-signed for Nottinghamshire for the first three months of both the 2026 and 2027 seasons after taking 21 wickets at 17.90 apiece this year.

“If Australia’s next crop of cricketers had a pecking order, Fergus O’Neill would right now be the first cab off the rank,” wrote Will Faulkner on the Fox Cricket website.

O’Neill has claimed 127 wickets for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, Australia’s domestic first-class competition, at a miserly average of just 20.59 since his debut in October 2022.

He is the reigning Player of the Year for both the Shield and in Victorian first-class cricket, with the latter award, the Bill Lawry Medal, having gone his way for two years in succession.

“He’s not the kind of quick who’ll blow you away with raw pace, but O’Neill doesn’t need to,” continued Faulkner.

“His biggest weapon is a relentlessness seen in his repeatable action, a nagging seam position and the kind of metronomic accuracy that undoes even the best batters.”

For O’Neill’s ostensible lack of speed, but for which his accuracy compensates, Faulkner compared him to Vernon Philander, who played 64 Tests for South Africa, taking 224 wickets.

“The 24-year-old is also far from a one-trick pony, having made three Shield half-centuries and a knack for frustrating opposition attacks with the bat,” the writer added.

While Nottinghamshire supporters are guaranteed to see O’Neill play for the Green and Golds in the next two years, Faulkner believes he has a distinct chance of playing at Trent Bridge in a very different shirt in two years’ time.

“With a 2027 Ashes tour on the horizon, O’Neill looms as the type who could threaten in bowler-friendly conditions,” he concluded.

“And for what it’s worth, [he] averages 45.40 with the bat, and just 21.80 with the ball this Shield season... ridiculous.”

See Fergus O’Neill in action for Nottinghamshire next season, as well as accessing a plethora of other perks, by securing your 2026 Membership now.

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