CIARAN MCCARTHY identifies some of the young players to look out for in the top tier of the LV=Insurance County Championship
Luc Benkenstein, the son of former South Africa and Durham batter Dale Benkenstein, will have a lot to live up to in the English county game, given his father won both the Friends Provident Trophy and the County Championship during his time at Durham.
Benkenstein has started his career on the right foot, making his senior debut for Essex as a 16-year-old, before he had played a second XI game for the county. That match was against his father's old team, Durham, a fitting first opponent: "It was quite funny how it was against Durham, my dad's old club," he told The Cricketer.
The 17-year-old is a true allrounder, and while he might not have the power game to "face 90mph and just go out and hit bombs" just yet, he is capable with the bat in hand. He showcased his abilities with the bat during cubs week, a national tournament in South Africa, in which he was named allrounder of the tournament after hitting 292 runs, which included four half centuries; he also took seven wickets across the five games.
The youngster is ready to put in the work and cement a place in the Essex side, whether it be in the coming season, or beyond.
"Obviously now with [Simon] Harmer being picked for South Africa I see that as a bit of an opportunity for me, but the one way to get into the first team is just to perform until they have to pick you really.
"If I can get my batting and my bowling up, hopefully I can come in and play another allrounder role."
Benkenstein is an admirer of Alastair Cook and relishing the opportunity to be able to play alongside him: "I actually used to have pictures of Chef all over my prep desk at school."
Tom Price has shown himself to be a handy asset with both bat and ball for Gloucestershire.
Price made his debut in one-day cricket for Gloucestershire in 2019 against an Australia A side including Matthew Wade, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood.
That was the first of only two one-day games he has played to this point, the second came last season against Surrey.
The County Championship is where Price has had his biggest impact in professional cricket. He debuted in the format in 2020, taking one wicket in a game against Worcestershire.
The 2021 season was when Price truly established himself as a county cricketer, with his best game coming against Glamorgan in September.
George Balderson has made a promising start to his career with Lancashire (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
The 22-year-old took 3 for 44 in the first innings, and followed that up with the bat, hitting 71 runs from No.9.
Price had a decent season with bat in hand, hitting 177 runs in nine innings, averaging 35.40, one of the highest averages across the whole of the squad.
He also showed his quality with the ball, taking 15 wickets across the season, with best figures of 4 for 72. His bowling average of 24.53 was also up there in terms of the best for Gloucestershire last season.
Having shown his abilities as an allrounder last season, Price will be keen on continuing his good form with both bat and ball in a Gloucestershire shirt over the coming campaign.
Tom Prest, a genuine allrounder with all the hallmarks of a quality county cricketer, and so much more.
The 18-year-old was one of the standout players in the 2022 Under-19 World Cup, taking his side to the final, only to endure final heartbreak against India.
Prest, though, spoke with all the conviction and composure of somebody who had been doing post-match interviews following gut-wrenching losses for years.
The top-order batter was England's top run-scorer in the tournament, amassing 292 runs, that sum included an unbeaten 154.
He has once passed the half-century mark in professional cricket, hitting an unbeaten 59 in the Blast in July 2021, as well as 44 in the quarter-final against Nottinghamshire to help Hampshire to Finals Day. Those scores came after a remarkable triple-hundred in a Second XI game against Sussex in May last year.
He is also more than apt with ball in hand, his off-spin claimed figures of 2 for 28 in a Royal London game last season.
His natural leadership qualities and abilities with both bat and ball mean he will be a crucial player for Hampshire in years to come, and he can stake his claim as a high-calibre county player with more opportunities this season.
Nathan Gilchrist quickly established himself as a genuine option with the ball for Kent in the 2021 County Championship.
The Zimbabwe-born seamer grew up in South Africa and moved over to England on a three-month cricket exchange to Kings College, Taunton in 2016.
While he made his Kent debut on loan in 2020, he fully established himself the following season, at the start of his three-year deal with the county.
Gilchrist was Kent's third-highest wicket-taker in the County Championship last season, taking 30 wickets at an average of 20.66. Only the ever-dependable Darren Stevens (39) and Matt Milnes (32) took more.
Sonny Baker has come through the system at Somerset (Harry Trump/Getty Images)
The 21-year-old took his maiden first-class five-wicket haul in September 2021, registering figures of 5 for 38 against Worcestershire. He also took a pair of four-wicket hauls in the format during the season.
Despite having only played six times in limited-overs cricket for Kent, Gilchrist also showed his capabilities with the white ball in hand last season.
The seamer took eight wickets in his six matches, with his best figures of 5 for 45 coming against Middlesex in August.
Gilchrist will no doubt continue to show his genuine quality with the ball over the coming season and will surely continue to take a lot of wickets.
George Balderson has had two good seasons in professional cricket to this point, establishing himself on the county circuit with good performances with both bat and ball.
Balderson made his debut in the County Championship in 2020, making his maiden half-century during the campaign. He was also utilised as an opening bowler during the season.
In 2021, the 21-year-old scored a further two first-class half centuries, his highest score came in the County Championship against Nottinghamshire in September, when he hit 77 from No.3. His third career 50 came in the Bob Willis trophy, when he notched 65 from the top of the order.
The allrounder averages just shy of 30 in first-class cricket, with 21 wickets to boot.
Balderson has also experienced International cricket, captaining the England-Under19 side to a tri-series final against West Indies in 2019. He spearheaded the seam attack in that squad, taking 15 wickets.
His nature as a top-order batter, as well as an important member of the seam attack means that he will likely have a great impact for Lancashire in the next few seasons, and he will hope that begins in 2022.
Emilio Gay has established himself as a genuine high-calibre top order batter in county cricket.
The 21-year-old made a name for himself in the academy set up at Northamptonshire, earning notoriety as Northants' academy player of the year for 2018 and 2019, and earned his first-team debut in 2019 off the back of a red-hot season with the bat in the second XI.
An all-format player, Gay has scored runs in both the County Championship and Royal London Cup, as well as a handy contribution in his only professional T20 appearance to date.
Jacob Bethell starred at the Under-19 World Cup (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Gay's best performance for Northants came in the County Championship, when he made a ton, opening the batting in the first innings against Kent in June 2021.
He also hit a County Championship half-century last season, his second in first-class cricket, finishing the season on 391 runs.
Gay has passed fifty once in one-day cricket, smashing 84 from 73 balls from the top of the order against Derbyshire in June 2021. He carried his bat, as he was at the crease at the end of the game, when Northants finished off a close game with three balls to spare.
Sonny Baker has played just eight games for Somerset in his senior career, but has established himself as a genuine option with the ball during those appearances.
Baker was still sitting his A Levels when he signed his two-year deal with Somerset, and excelled in those. "Obviously, we had a game on Tuesday, so I didn't look at my results until the evening. I wanted to concentrate on the game, and my results were going to be the same at 6 o'clock as they would be at 8.30am. I'm really pleased with my results which were two As and a B," he said via Somerset's website.
The 18-year-old's best haul in his first season in professional cricket was 3 for 46 in the Royal London Cup against Derbyshire in July.
His impressive performances across the season earned him a place in Trent Rockets' squad for the inaugural season of The Hundred, though he did not feature.
The young seamer has featured on the international stage, for England Under-19s. Baker was in the squad ahead of the 2022 World Cup, taking 10 wickets in five games against West Indies in the lead up to the tournament.
He sustained an unfortunate injury during those games, which forced him out of the Under-19 World Cup, in which England finished as runners-up.
He could well have had a big impact, given his top performances against West Indies, taking best figures of 4 for 41.
Given his impressive nature with ball in hand, Baker could well have a very good season in the coming campaign.
Ben Geddes – a product of Surrey's academy – has represented the side since under-nine level, and has clearly been a capable cricketer from a young age, captaining Ashtead in Surrey at the ripe age of 19.
He was awarded a two-year professional deal last season: "I'm absolutely buzzing. I remember coming to games at The Kia Oval and watching as a young kid. I started playing for Surrey at age nine so to sign my first professional contract at 19 is really a dream come true. I can’t wait to get stuck in this summer," he said.
He went on to make his debut for Surrey in each format in 2021, playing one County Championship game, four Royal London games and six T20s.
Yorkshire are blooding Harry Duke as their next homegrown wicketkeeper (Tony Marshall/Getty Images)
Most of Geddes' success for Surrey so far has come in one-day games; he hit his highest score across all formats in professional cricket in a one-day game against Warwickshire last August, making 32 from 30 balls from the top of the order.
The 20-year-old has also played grade cricket in Australia, and clearly wants to play as much cricket as possible, so that he can become the best cricketer he can be.
Surrey has been one of the best counties in England for breeding international cricketers in recent times, with the likes of Jason Roy, the Curran brothers and Ollie Pope going on to play for England in various formats, and Geddes could well do the same should he continue to thrive in county cricket.
Jacob Bethell's journey to playing county cricket in England has been anything but regular, but he is now one of the most promising young individuals in England.
Bethell was born and raised in Barbados, and gained a scholarship to Rugby School in Warwickshire when he was 12 years old. Shortly after, Bethell was picked up by Warwickshire.
The left-handed batter hit two half-centuries from the top of the order in the Under-19 World Cup, with his highest score a quick-fire 88 from 42 in the quarter-final against South Africa, to help England along to the semi-final of the tournament.
He cracked fours in four consecutive balls during that innings, striking the ball to the rope with a mixture of a textbook strokes and genuine power.
Bethell was England's second-highest run-scorer in the tournament, with 205, at an average of 34.16.
The 18-year-old has passed fifty once in his county cricket career so far – batting at No.7 against Yorkshire in a One Day Cup match in August 2021, Bethell hit 66 from 41 deliveries.
The youngster has shown his quality as a genuine allrounder in county cricket, taking 11 wickets in white-ball cricket last season; his best figures are 4 for 36.
Playing a starring role for England Under-19s will have helped him to learn and become a more well-rounded cricketer, and should he transfer his skills to county cricket, he could become a fantastic player.
Duke is being lined up to be the next long-term wicketkeeper in a crop of quality glovemen at Headingley, with the most notable being Jonny Bairstow, and Duke has taken every opportunity to learn from him.
"I spent a lot of time talking to him about keeping to Dave Willey, I was finding him tricky and Jonny helped me out a lot," he said.
At just 20 years of age, Duke is the owner of a fairly admirable statistic in White Rose history; his score of 125 in the Royal London One Day Cup in 2021 made him the youngest Yorkshire batter to score a century in the format since India great Sachin Tendulkar.
Though Duke himself is humbled by that statistic, more than anything: "It's a bit embarrassing to be named up there with such a great player," he said.
Tom Prest has impressed since coming through at Hampshire (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
"It's obviously a nice person to be up near, but I think I've got a lot of work to do to get near what he’s achieved in the game."
However, the wicketkeeper-batter's statistics from his maiden season in county cricket tell the story of a young cricketer who is keen to work hard and prove himself.
Indeed, he has a healthy average of 29.42 in List A cricket, and passed the half century mark twice in first-class matches.
It is more than likely that Duke will build on the impressive start he has made for Yorkshire throughout the coming season and beyond, and improving upon his power game, which he has no doubt worked on over the winter will surely afford him opportunities across each format.
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