Dan Lawrence

Dan Lawrence is primarily a right-handed middle-order batter who can also bowl handy off-breaks in a loose and flowy action. Starting his county career aged 18 at Essex in 2015, Lawrence moved down to Surrey in 2024. Often in England's radar, particularly in red-ball cricket, Lawrence has struggled to break into the playing XI on a consistent basis with him fighting for the same spot as the likes of Ollie Pope and Harry Brook. Liking what they see, however, the Stokes-McCullum duo kept Lawrence close to the action and an opportunity presented itself, albeit in an unfamiliar position, in the home series against Sri Lanka in 2024 with regular opener Zak Crawley out injured.

Dan Lawrence's cricketing journey began early at Chingford Cricket Club where his father worked as a groundsman. He made a name for himself only in his second county championship match at the age of 17, when he portrayed the temperament of a seasoned campaigner in an unblemished 161 against Surrey at the Kia Oval. He smashed quite a few records that day, the most significant one was to become the third youngest centurion in county cricket after Godfrey Bryan and Dipak Patel.

After that formidable knock, he had a reputation to maintain and since then, he did exceedingly well to garner the tag of the best young cricketers in county cricket. Adding to his early laurels was a stunning 174 that came against Fiji in the opening encounter of the 2016 U-19 World Cup. In 2017, the England Cricket Writers Club named him the Young Cricketer of the Year after he piled up 761 runs and assisted newly-promoted Essex to win the county championship.

Facts

> Made his Test debut in 2021 during England's tour to Sri Lanka and struck 73 in the first innings

> Captains the London Spirit in The Hundred

> Plays across the globe. Tournaments he features in include BBL, PSL & ILT20

By Varun Dixit & Anurag Hegde