Aneurin Donald

A destructive top-order batsman in limited-overs cricket and an attacking middle-order player in the first-class game, Aneurin Donald left his native Glamorgan for Hampshire late in the 2018 season citing his desire to play international cricket.

Born in Swansea, Donald broke into the Glamorgan first team after years in the age-group and second XI set-ups, and has strong family ties to the county: his great-uncle, Bernand Hedges, played over 400 games for them between 1950 and 1967.

He spent 18 months in the England Under-19 set-up, and shared captaincy duties with Haseeb Hameed despite underwhelming with the bat, but he first came to real prominence in 2016. Aged 19, he spanked 234 off 136 balls, equalling the fastest double-century in first-class cricket, in a remarkable maiden Championship hundred at Colwyn Bay. Derbyshire's attack was taken for 15 sixes, only one short of Graham Napier's Championship record, and his promise was undoubted.

He showed flashes of brilliance in limited-overs cricket, including a 40-ball 76 in a Glamorgan heist at The Oval in 2017, but such innings were only intermittent, and he left during a 2018 season in which he failed to reach fifty in any format.

His white-ball form was mixed in his first full season at the Ageas Bowl, but he played two Championship innings that reaffirmed his talent. In his first first-class game for Hampshire, he hit 75 from 56 balls against Warwickshire, and in July he took the same attack for 173 off 144 balls in a superb counterattacking innings from No. 6. The season ended in disappointment though, when he surprisingly found no takers in the inaugural draft for the Hundred.
ESPNcricinfo staff