Michael Lumb      

The son of prolific Yorkshire opener Richard Lumb, Michael was born in South Africa and made his way through the junior teams in Transvaal before returning to his roots to play for Yorkshire. A hard-hitting batsman, he made his county debut in 2000, scoring 66 not out against the touring Zimbabweans. A knee injury in 2001 meant that he played only a small part in Yorkshire's success in winning the county championship that year, although he did record a maiden first-class hundred against Leicestershire. In doing so he became part of only the fourth father and son pair to score centuries for Yorkshire.

He made progress in 2002 by becoming a regular member of both the championship and limited-overs sides and in 2003 scored close to a thousand first-class runs at an average of over 40, including two centuries and six fifties. He was selected for the ECB National Academy squad the following winter, but has failed to kick on as people expected and was dropped by Yorkshire during the 2005 season. He has averaged in the middle-thirties for the past two seasons, with a top score of 144 in 2006 but, at the end of the season, decided against renewing his contract and moved to Hampshire for 2007.

The move galvanised his career, and his prolific Twenty20 form in 2009, where he made 442 runs from 11 games including a blistering unbeaten 124 from 69 balls against Essex, brought about a surprising IPL deal - snapped up by the Rajasthan Royals for $50,000. It proved to be the launch-pad to higher achievements.

On the back of an unbeaten 58 to guide England Lions to victory against the senior team in a warm-up match in Dubai, he was called in as the latest incarnation of England's Twenty20 specialist opener for the World Twenty20 in Caribbean in May 2010. His selection was a revelation as, despite a top score of 33, he routinely muscled brisk starts which set the tone that carried England to their first ever triumph in a global limited-overs event.

Cricinfo staff May 2010