Gareth Batty      

Jack-in-the-box allrounder Gareth Batty had to jink around to find a regular first-team spot. Born in Bradford, he played for Yorkshire in 1997 before moving south to try his luck with Surrey. The young man then went west to Worcester, for whom he took 56 wickets with his offspin (and biffed 491 runs) in 2002. That won him a spot at the England Academy in Adelaide in 2002-03, and the selectors sent for him as they cast around for reinforcements during that winter's injury-plagued tour of Australia. Batty played two one-day internationals in Australia, impressing with his tight lines and feisty fielding, and with that in mind he was included in England's 14-man squad for the 2004 Champions Trophy. Doubts persisted about whether he turned it enough to trouble Test batsmen, but he was nevertheless selected for England's trip to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2003. It was an eventful tour - he came close to drowning in a surfing accident in Galle, and at times struggled to keep his head above water with the ball. His batting against Muttiah Muralitharan, on the other hand, was a revelation, and he was instrumental in saving back-to-back Tests at Galle and Kandy. However, since then his chances have be limited to the occasional stand-in role, most notably during the Test in Antigua when Brian Lara reached 400. Despite consistent seasons for Worcestershire he was overtaken by other spinners, but was briefly recalled to the one-day squad to face West Indies in 2009. Not content with the ambition shown at Worcestershire he made himself available to switch counties in the 2009 summer and was snapped up on a sizeable deal by Surrey.
Steven Lynch