Aiden Blizzard

Aiden Blizzard moved to South Australia in 2010 in what was effectively a swap for another left-hander, Mark Cosgrove, who lost his SA contract and shipped off to Tasmania. While Cosgrove topped the Sheffield Shield aggregates and made off with the trophy, Blizzard played his first full season of first-class matches and made the most runs among the Redbacks. At his best as free-swinging as David Warner, Blizzard played out the summer in fits and starts - two centuries, three ducks - and will want to be a little more consistent in 2011-12.

Blizzard first made himself the centre of attention on January 1, 2007. In his Twenty20 debut, Blizzard thumped 89 from 38 balls - his half-century took 23 deliveries - as he cleared the Adelaide Oval ropes eight times. There was no fluke about his innings, which featured some of the hardest, cleanest hitting one could hope to see from a rookie-contracted player.

He had made his FR Cup debut in 2005-06 and added five more games the next season, earning a senior contract for 2007-08. He again entertained in the Twenty20 with 145 runs at a strike-rate of 185, but in ten FR Cup games he passed fifty only once. He also made his first-class debut, posting 30 in his only innings against Tasmania. Blizzard struggled in 2008-09, with only two FR Cup games and 102 runs in his seven Twenty20s, and played only one T20 and three one-dayers last summer. He scored an unbeaten 42 off 19 in that T20 appearance - it was in the final - and SA were so impressed they signed him for 2010-11. Blizzard, who toured India and Sri Lanka with the Academy in 2004, played in the Bangladesh domestic competition in 2010 before representing the MCC.

He was bought by the Mumbai Indians for $20,000 in the player auction ahead of the 2011 IPL and was named in their Champions League T20 squad as well.
ESPNcricinfo staff