At a skyscraper height of 6ft 7ins, Reece Topley towers above his team-mates. An early developer, he first hit the headlines in 2009 when, as a 15-year-old net bowler, his favourite player Kevin Pietersen drilled a drive into the side of his head. He needed stitches but Pietersen left him a signed bat as a more welcome memento.

It wasn't until 2011 that Topley started making his own headlines. A gangly 17-year-old left-arm seamer with huge potential he took 14 wickets for Essex in his three opening Championship matches - including five-wicket hauls in each of his first two games against Kent and Middlesex.

Allied to his precious natural attributes of height and left-handedness Topley appears to have a sound and inquisitive bowling brain, seeking advice from Chaminda Vaas when Essex met Northamptonshire. His 2011 season had been a sensation but was interrupted as Topley had to return to Royal Hospital School in Suffolk to start revising for the summer exams. His father, the former Essex player Don, is his school teacher and cricket mentor so slacking in any department is not an option.

Topley seemed admirably unaffected by the early hype. At the Under-19 World Cup in Australia in 2012, he stood out as a professional in a boys' game: no one claimed more than his 19 wickets, which came at nine apiece, and Topley relished his status as a senior bowler in England's side. Further recognition - before he had even turned 19 - arrived with an England Lions call-up for the 2013 tour Down Under. The ECB and Essex have been careful to manage his workload, the county rotating him with their other talented quicks.
ESPNcricinfo staff