Craig Meschede

Craig Meschede's first gained headlines by claiming the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, caught behind by his former school friend Jos Buttler, as his maiden first-class wicket. It does not get much better than that.

Born to a German father in South Africa but Somerset educated, Meschede is yet another player to emerge from Dennis Breakwell's nursery at King's College Taunton. It was his hard-hitting batting that originally attracted Somerset and he made his second team debut aged just 17 in 2009.

He has enjoyed some good moments with the bat - an innings of 53 from 28 balls to take Somerset to victory in a T20 over Glamorgan in 2011 - and a maiden first-class half-century against Hampshire later the same season was followed by 62 against Durham early in 2012. But it was more as a bowler he shone as he developed into a genuine allrounder.

Some difficulty against the short ball hampered his progress and he has spent much of his time since in the second XI. But Somerset retained faith in his talent and gave him a new contract at the end of 2014.

With Jim Allenby joining Somerset from Glamorgan at the end of 2014, though, there was a prospect that Meschede might struggle for first team opportunities at Somerset. It was therefore arranged for him to represent Glamorgan throughout the 2015 season on a loan deal, a season in which he prospered more with bat than ball.

He confirmed that relationship by joining Glamorgan fulltime and progressed in 2016 with two centuries, including a maiden first-class hundred against Surrey in Cardiff, and a maiden Championship 'five-for' during Glamorgan's victory over the eventual Division Two champions, Essex, at Chelmsford.

Meschede represented Germany in World T20 qualifiers in the Netherlands 2018, taking the chance to experience "a completely different environment". With Brexit fever rife in the UK, he sensibly checked beforehand whether it would affect his English residential qualification.
ESPNcricinfo staff