A young and highly-regarded wicketkeeper with a talent that has been nurtured by Derbyshire since he was 11, Tom Poynton made his first-team debut during the 2007 Twenty20 group stages when James Pipe was injured. Although his first match lasted just 7.3 overs and in his next outing, against Yorkshire, he scored just three, the county still handed him a Championship debut in July against Middlesex. He made a pair batting at No. 8.

Nonetheless, it was a memorable season which saw him make eight first team appearances in all competitions, impressing with his tidy work behind the stumps enough to see him labelled as a star of the future. He was part of England's Elite Player programme in 2008, and travelled to South Africa with England Under-19 early the following year.

Poynton found more opportunities at first-team level hard to come by. He made four appearances in the Championship in 2010 but the return of Luke Sutton meant he did not figure at all in four-day cricket in 2011. However, Sutton's retirement at the end of that season pushed him to the fore as first choice for 2012 and he seized his chance impressively as one of a crop of young home-grown players in which Derbyshire had put their faith.

He missed only two matches through injury and finished with 43 dismissals to his name as Derbyshire won the Division Two title and made great strides as a batsman with his first two Championship 50s and a maiden century against Northamptonshire, when he and Wayne Madsen shared an epic partnership of 261 that was only 23 runs short of breaking the 102-year-old world record for the ninth wicket. He will compete to keep the gloves in 2012 with Richard Johnson, who came in as loan cover from Warwickshire for the two matches Poynton missed through injury in 2012 and has since switched permanently.
ESPNcricinfo staff