Tom Westley

A graceful batter with, at his best, an enchanting leg-side game, Tom Westley spent one summer in the England side but enjoyed more enduring success with his boyhood county, Essex, where he was a key figure in the club's run of five titles in as many seasons, latterly as captain.

Westley won England recognition a decade after his Essex debut, playing five Tests against South Africa and West Indies in 2017. His technique, with an on drive to the fore, drew comparisons with John Crawley and a half-century on debut encouraged optimism that, at 28, his long apprenticeship on the county circuit would finally bear fruit. But a run of five single-figure scores in his last six innings led him to be omitted from England's Ashes tour party.

The news coincided with Essex being presented with the Championship trophy - Westley averaging 43.15 as the pennant returned to Chelmsford for the first time in 25 years. It felt like a neat symbol of where his immediate future lay and that proved to be the case; Westley continued to be a key cog, playing a full part in Essex's 2019 Championship and T20 double. He took over the captaincy the following summer, and duly led Essex to another piece of silverware in a pandemic-wrecked season as they lifted the Bob Willis Trophy.

Westley had served notice of his talent in 2015, a century against the Australian tourists at Chelmsford ahead of the Ashes series enough to prompt a congratulatory text from Alastair Cook. Three more hundreds followed in Essex's promotion as Division Two winners the following summer, as this modest and articulate Durham graduate passed 1000 runs for the first time. He received a few honourable mentions in despatches, but it took performances in Division One - as well as a hundred against South Africa for the Lions - to properly catch the attention of the England selectors.

Westley, first spotted by Keith Fletcher, the Essex guru, initially emerged as a middle-order batter after joining the Essex Academy as a 14-year-old in 2003. He made his first-team debut in a one-day match against the touring Sri Lankans in June 2006 and broke into the red-ball side the following summer - but saw greater action with England Under-19s, first for Pakistan's visit and then for a tour of Sri Lanka and the U19 World Cup that followed in February 2008. Westley was named captain of the Under-19 side for New Zealand's tour that summer, and from 2009 juggled sporadic Essex appearances with his studies at Durham University. A natural leader, he was also put in charge of the Durham MCCU side but returned to Essex to play a part in the County Championship promotion push by hitting a maiden first-class century in a crucial match at Derby.

His progress thereafter was steady rather than spectacular and it wasn't until 2012 that, for the first time, he played in every Championship game. His move up the order to open with Jaik Mickleburgh provided Essex with some solidity and included hitting his highest first-class score of 185 against Glamorgan. A broken finger sustained in the Ashes warm-up match against England curtailed his 2013 but the following season saw an extra dimension added to his limited-overs game.

A breakthrough year in white-ball cricket, in which he averaged 57.33 in the Royal London Cup and 44.83 in T20, with three centuries across the formats, put him back on the selectors' radar. He joined the England Performance Programme's batting and spin camp in Sri Lanka, staying on afterwards to play for club side Bloomfield.
ESPNcricinfo staff