Adam Rossington

Adam Rossington, a pugnacious wicketkeeper-batter, built a solid body of work during eight seasons at Northamptonshire, where he was a T20 Blast winner and later club captain. In white-ball cricket, his muscular hitting at the top of the order won him a Hundred contract with London Spirit, and his stock continued to rise amid the explosion of overseas leagues, picking up spells in the Abu Dhabi T10 and SA20.

Rossington stepped in as Northants captain midway through the 2019 season and helped guide them to a first Championship promotion since 2013, finishing as their leading run-scorer, too. He retained the captaincy during the Covid disruptions of 2020 and 2021 but a falling out with new head coach, John Sadler, meant he never got to enjoy Northants' return to Division One the following summer. Loaned out to Essex, he made the move permanent a few months later.

A product of both Middlesex's youth teams and the expensive Mill Hill school in North London, Rossington hit 161 in his first 2nd XI innings for Middlesex, against Northamptonshire in 2009. A first-class debut followed the next season and he was part of England's Under-19s that summer against Sri Lanka when a destructive hundred in the first unofficial Test made an impression. His maiden first-class hundred - an unbeaten 57-ball ton against Cambridge MCCU - included a string of five consecutive sixes.

His opportunities had been limited at Middlesex by the presence of John Simpson, but even so the departure of a player who had come through the Middlesex youth system, and who was described on his departure by director of cricket Angus Fraser as "an extremely talented young cricketer" was something of a surprise.

Rossington was one of the few bright spots for Northamptonshire in 2014 as they were relegated from Division One of the Championship, his 465 runs at 31.00 were about as good as it got at Wantage Road - he also carried threat in limited-overs cricket - and his loan from Middlesex became a permanent deal at the end of the season. He played a vital role in Northamptonshire's T20 Blast win in 2016, scoring a half-century against Middlesex in the quarter-finals, and there was a career-best Championship innings to celebrate, too: 138 not out against Sussex, a rapid innings that underlined his danger with the bat.
ESPNcricinfo staff