Andrew Umeed

An old-school opening batter blessed with patience and determination, Andrew Umeed made something of a name for himself with one of the slowest centuries in the history of County Championship cricket during the 2017 season. Faced with a Lancashire attack armed with a pink ball (it was a day-night game) and including James Anderson, Umeed took 429-minutes to reach his century. It was believed to be the second slowest (after Jason Gallian, who once took 453 minutes to make a hundred for Lancashire against Derbyshire in Blackpool in 1994) in terms of minutes in the history of the Championship.

It was not an entirely untypical innings, either. In 2016 Umeed made a four-and-a-half hour century on Championship debut against a Durham attack including Graham Onions. Only one of his teammates was able to reach 40 in either innings of the same game.

Glasgow born and raised - he was obliged to fly from Scotland at short notice when he was granted an unexpected Warwickshire debut at the expense of the dropped Ian Westwood - Umeed's first-class debut came in the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Afghanistan in 2015. He had previously played in two U19 World Cups but, despite being named in Scotland's 24-man preliminary squad, missed out on a place in their final 2015 World Cup squad.

Having been of interest to Durham as a teenager, he was lured to Warwickshire in part by the presence, at the time, of former Scotland all-rounder Dougie Brown. Umeed joined the county's academy and has played for them form U17 level. He has also utilised family in Pakistan to spend a couple of winters at Saeed Ajmal's academy in Faisalabad.

Umeed was released by Warwickshire at the end of 2018 but forced his way back into the professional game. With assistance from the South Asian Cricket Academy, he earned a contract with Somerset in mid-2022.
ESPNcricinfo staff