Marcus Stoinis

A powerful, versatile batter and medium-pace bowler, Marcus Stoinis has become a mainstay in Australia's limited-overs sides as well as a dominant player in the BBL and a sought-after player in the IPL.

He debuted for his home state of Western Australia at the age of 19, but won limited opportunities with the Warriors and moved to Victoria to further his career. Eventually persuaded by his piles of runs for Northcote, the Victorian selectors gave him a run of games in the Sheffield Shield side during 2013-14 and Stoinis rewarded them with an outstanding 170 against Tasmania, a breakthrough innings that led to him becoming a regular in the top order. Stoinis was Victoria's leading run-scorer in the 2014-15 Sheffield Shield season and was called into Australia's squad for their limited-overs matches against England in 2015, where he debuted, playing an ODI and a T20I.

He did not do enough to secure a permanent place in the national squad then, but continued to impress in first-class cricket and scored a century for Australia A against South Africa A in 2016. He was selected for his second ODI in January 2017 and what an ODI comeback it was: after claiming three wickets, Stoinis scored 146 not out from No. 7 to help Australia almost pull off an unlikely victory against New Zealand at Eden Park. That innings gave Stoinis a permanent place in the ODI and T20I teams where he has since batted in a multitude of spots in the middle order and bowled in a variety of roles including the death overs. He was Australia's ODI cricketer of the year in 2018-19. He had a disappointing 2019 World Cup due to a side injury. Since then he has established himself as a senior member of the T20I and ODI teams and has performed well in the IPL as a finisher despite being a dominant opener in the BBL. He used that IPL experience to help guide Australia to victory in the 2021 T20 World Cup with a vital innings in the semi-final against Pakistan.

His first-class cricket stalled in the same period with a long dip in form, in part due to a lack of continuity. He also had to move from Victoria back to Western Australia for family reasons. Talked about as a potential Test match allrounder, despite a middling first-class record, he was called into an extended Test squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka in February 2019.
ESPNcricinfo staff