David Payne

David Payne's memorable moment in a Gloucestershire shirt came in the 2015 Royal London One-Day Cup final win over Surrey. Bowling the last over, Payne dismissed both Sam Curran and Gareth Batty to secure the club's first piece of silverware in 11 years.

A brisk left-arm seamer, Payne has not yet developed into a consistent performer that his talent as a teenager suggested he might become.

Payne had already been part of Gloucestershire's academy for a year before he was first picked for England Under-19s' trip to South Africa in January 2009 and at the end of the year found his way onto the ECB Elite Player Development Programme. He played five of England's six matches at the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand and took 10 wickets at 14.20.

That summer he was given his chance for Gloucestershire in one-day cricket and took 7 for 29 - including four wickets in four balls - against Essex at Chelmsford in a 40-over match. It was the best haul by a Gloucestershire bowler in one-day cricket.

He started 2011 in fine style, scoring an unbeaten 46 from No. 10 and taking 5 for 76 to help Gloucestershire to a seven-wicket win over Derbyshire in the County Championship. Payne took 42 wickets at 30.90 that season and averaged 22.90 from 22 wickets in 2012. But 2013 was difficult for him and he returned only 18 wickets at 50.94. To attend to his faltering career, that winter he attended the Darren Lehmann academy in Adelaide but his trip was cut short by an ankle injury. A bruised heel also hampered his 2014 season but he came back in the second half to take 17 wickets at just 16.41 to help Gloucestershire to the quarter-final of the Royal London Cup.

2016 was more successful in the Championship as he took 43 wickets in the Championship, leading the attack with consistency, but he lost his way in limited-overs cricket. But over the next five years, he became the undisputed leader of the attack under Richard Dawson, and was belatedly rewarded for his regular white-ball success with a surprise England call-up, when the first-choice ODI squad was forced into self-isolation due to a number of positive Covid-19 tests in July 2021.

ESPNcricinfo staff