Matthew Fisher

"Matt Fisher: I think he is going to be an unbelievable bowler." So said team-mate Tim Bresnan after Fisher's introduction to Championship cricket in April 2015, voicing what Yorkshire - and England - have privately been hoping about this languid, lanky fast bowler in-the-making since he first came on the scene as a teenager.

By the end of the curtailed 2020 summer, however, he was still struggling to convert that early promise, as injuries restricted his development. Only twice - in 2015 and 2018 - did he manage to make 20 appearances across a season, the latter featuring half a dozen outings for England Lions. His ailments were various: hamstring problems, side strain, back stress injury, broken thumb, dislocated shoulder. But his quality remained clear, too, when he was able to play. His first-class wickets came at 26.18 in 2019 and 18.00 the following year.

And England continued to keep close tabs on his development despite those injuries. After a solid season in 2021, in which he showcased his ability to extract steepling bounce from a good length, he was rewarded with a call-up for the Lions tour to Australia. He was the standout bowler on that tour, earning a spot in the Test squad for the away series against West Indies in early 2022. He was given a last-minute debut in Barbados after Craig Overton was taken ill before the second Test, and even claimed a wicket second-ball, but before he could build on that breakthrough in the 2022 home summer, he had succumbed to a stress fracture. After a lengthy lay-off, he bounced back, however, with a five-wicket haul for England Lions in Sri Lanka in February 2023.

Fisher's rise to prominence began in June 2013 when, aged 15 years and 212 days, he became the youngest post-war county cricketer in a 40-over match against Leicestershire. He was still 15 when he was first included in an England Under-19 squad for a triangular series against Bangladesh and Pakistan that summer.

In 2015, he became Yorkshire's sixth-youngest Championship debutant when, at 17 years and 161 days old, he faced Nottinghamshire in a draw at Trent Bridge. He also played in 13 T20 Blast matches, and his debut haul of 5 for 22 against Derbyshire at Headingley made him only the third Yorkshire bowler to have taken five wickets in a T20 match.

Afflicted by injury as he grew rapidly - he tore his left hamstring three times in a year - his 2016 season was a non-event, but his potential remained unquestioned and he was given a final tour with England Under-19s in India in 2017 to help him restate his potential. It also emerged around that time that he was hard of hearing. Yorkshire took great care not to demand too much from him until his body strengthened, but there were occasional reminders - such as a maiden Championship five-for in late 2017 - that the county still had a talent on their hands.
ESPNcricinfo staff