Jhye Richardson

Jhye Richardson is an express fast bowler, well-known for his abilities to bowl at over 150kmph and nipping the ball into the right-hander. If that wasn’t enough, through the years, Richardson developed his well-directed short deliveries and asked tough questions off batsmen bowling hard lengths. The young Australian force is coming through the ranks to seal his spot in the well-settled bowling unit. 

The pacer initially got discouraged at a young age due to his short height and skinny structure, but the young Jhye didn’t lose hope and marched onwards. In 2015, The 19-year-old Jhye made his First-Class debut against Queensland. A couple of months later, the Fremantle-born was named as the vice-captain for the U-19 World Cup squad. 

Post the Junior World Cup, the pacer was awarded a Big Bash League (BBL) rookie contract by the Perth Scorchers franchise in the fifth edition of the league but only played a single game. The developing pacer got his breakthrough BBL season during the 2016-17 edition where his side clinched their third title and Jhye walked away with the ‘Man of the Match’ title for his three wickets in the BBL final. 

Since then, there has been no looking back for the promising talent who made his T20I debut in February 2017 against Sri Lanka. After a couple of international matches, Jhye went back to grind in the domestic circuit to gather Sheffield Shield experience under his belt. 

The pacer made his ODI debut against England at Brisbane, early in 2018. He was also included in the Test squad of Australia's tour of South Africa in 2018 but wasn't fortunate enough to grab his Test cap then. In April that year, Cricket Australia handed him his maiden annual contract. 

In January 2019, Jhye made his Test debut in the Day-Night game against the visiting Lankans. Post his maiden Test series, Jhye worked on his pace and targeted to hit the bat on hard, which resulted in two back-to-back successful BBL stints. Since then, the pacer has been a regular in the Australian ODI set-up and finished the BBL 10 as the highest wicket-taker with 29 scalps to his name. 

Ahead of the IPL 2021, Punjab Kings bought Jhye Richardson for INR 14 crore in the mini-auctions. Many cricketing brains have hailed Jhye’s drastic improvement, including the Australian selectors. If the promising quick persist on the road to progress, Jhye would surely become a treasure for the Australian side across all formats. 

(As of March 2021)