Andrew Umeed

If you notch up a century on County debut, there got to be something special about it. And as if that wasn't quite an achievement, Andrew Umeed went onto record another ton in the inaugural pink-ball Championship fixture at Edgbaston; against a prolific Lancashire attack led by none other than England's best ever swing bowler, James Anderson. Andrew Robert Isaac Umeed is a special talent. Or so they believe at Warwickshire.

Born in Glasgow, Umeed's naturally gifted with a textbook-esque technique and patience worth million dollars. Having made his First Class debut with Scotland, in the ICC Intercontinental game against Afghanistan in June 2015, the wiry-teenager was called up to play for Warwickshire after he failed to make it to the 15-man squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia in 2015. Although he had prior experience of playing two Under 19 World Cups for Scotland, Umeed could count himself unlucky for not having a crack at the mega event despite being named in the 24-man preliminary squad.

Umeed, however, didn't let that disappointment swell on him. On his maiden appearance for the Club, he slammed a masterful century against a strong Durham attack in 2016 when the rest of his mates failed to put up a fifty in either innings of that game. And an year later, in the aforementioned pink-ball Championship game, Umeed scripted the second slowest century - in terms of time - in the history of County cricket. To be precisely accurate, he took 429 minutes (=25740 seconds) to bring up his moment of glory. That knock echoed all the grit, stoicism and academic approach Umeed had towards batting.

The seed of prosperity, however, was rooted at the age of 17 when Umeed, so nearly, was grabbed by Durham to further his progress, only to strike a deal with Warwickshire later on. He worked on his basic skills at the Club and also made great use of his family passport to spend a couple of seasons in Pakistan at the Saeed Ajmal Academy to sharpen his bowling skills. Umeed does bowl legbreaks occasionally, but mostly sticks to batting - which he considers as his biggest source of strength and motivation.

Written by Raju Peethala