Luis Reece

Luis Reece, an opening batsman, joined Derbyshire after he failed to fulfil early promise at Lancashire and was released at the end of the 2016 season. He proved himself a consistent performer with bat and ball, capable of game-changing bursts of form.

Reece joined the Lancashire Academy in 2008, having made appearances for the Second XI as a 17-year-old the previous year, but it was across the Pennines in Leeds in 2012 that he gave notice of the other component of his game - an ability to bowl left-arm medium pace to considerable effect - when he took 7 for 21 for Leeds/Bradford MCCU in a three-day friendly against Sussex, at one time having figures of 5 for 0 from five overs.

Spells for the Unicorns in the county 40-over competition in 2011 and 2012 also helped him reawaken Lancashire's interest. After also averaging 64.60 with the bat for Lancashire's Second XI he signed a professional contract for 2013.

Reece made an immediate impact when he opened the innings for Lancashire in the Championship in 2013, averaging more than 55 and being named as the county's Young Player of the Year as they won promotion from the Second Division. Seven of his fifties came in successive innings. Sign of the interest he had generated came when he represented MCC in Abu Dhabi prior to the 2014 season. A rise in standards, though, proved more difficult for him to combat and he failed to retain his place as his average took a battering. A knee injury slowed his progress with the ball.

His 2015 season was disrupted when he broke a hand thumping the dressing room wall in frustration at a poor run of form and a dubious lbw decision: he later explained at as caused by emotional fallout after the death of his grandmother and a close friend.

At the end of another unproductive summer in 2016 he joined Derbyshire in the hope of getting his career back on track. He did just that, scoring healthily in the Championship, although his season was disrupted by a viral-induced heart scare which saw him hospitalised after pulling up while bowling during a match against Northants at Northampton. He enjoyed a record T20 Blast campaign, in his first full season in the format, scoring 433 runs and four fifties - a joint Derbyshire record - and a career-best 97 not out against his former county, as if to emphasise that they had overlooked his potential in the shorter format.

A broken foot disrupted his 2018 summer, but his rehab was rewarded at the end of the season when he startled even himself with a career-best 7 for 20 against some undistinguished Gloucestershire batting at Derby.

ESPNcricinfo staff