Daniel Lawrence

21-year-old right-hand middle-order batsman, Daniel Lawrence, who plays predominantly in red-ball cricket for the England national side was brought into the English side after their frustrating haul with the openers and middle-order batsman after the departure of Sir Alastair Cook.

Lawrence spent most of his youth at Chingford CC where his father was a groundsman learning new batting skills. He started his cricketing career for Essex and came into the limelight after amassing 161 for Essex against Surrey at the Oval in April 2015, becoming one of the youngest players to make a championship century, at just 17 years and 290 days in his second first-class game.

He made his first-class debut against Kent in April 2015. Lawrence’s contribution with the bat, scoring three championship hundred, was influential in getting Essex promotion to the County Championship first division. After his exciting introduction, he was in England’s squad for the 2016 U-19 World cup side. In the first match of the tournament, he scored a stupendous match-winning knock of 174 in 150 balls against Fiji, the highest score by an English batsman in a youth ODI.

In 2017, he led Essex to the County Championship after 25 years. The most elite moment in his career was when he received the Young Cricketer of the year by Cricket Writers’ Club, after scoring 761 runs at an average of 44.76.

Lawrence made his debut for England Lions in 2017 and the summer of 2018 was a bit disappointing for the young star who was not able to pin his spot in England’s Test Team. Lawrence's off-spin came as a surprise in limited-overs cricket and was also praised by head coach Chris Silverwood as Essex’s “secret weapon” with his unusual bowling action. 

After his all-round man of the match performance against Cricket Australia XI, where he took 4-28 and a quickfire 50 gave him slight hopes of playing international cricket for his country. His stunning form with the Lions continued where he scored a spectacular 190 and took 4 wickets in a 4-day match against CA XI which saw him included in a 30-man squad to start training behind closed doors for the Test series against West Indies in June 2020 following the Covid-19 Pandemic. On July 4th he was named as one of the nine reserve players for the first Test match of the series. 

In December 2020, Dan Lawrence was selected in England’s Test squad against Sri Lanka and made his International debut in the first Test match against Srilanka and scored a dazzling 73 in the first innings before being caught at short leg. Being a young talent with immense potential, ECB would hope that he further solidifies his position at number 3 in England’s Test side following the footsteps of the great Ian Bell.

(As of February 2021)