Adam Rossington, a pugnacious wicketkeeper-batsman, played a vital role in Northamptonshire's NatWest Trophy win in 2016, scoring the half-century against Middlesex in the quarter-finals that helped take them to Finals Day. There was a career-best Championship innings to celebrate, too: 138 not out against Sussex, a rapid innings that underlined his danger with the bat.

A product of both Middlesex's youth teams and the expensive Mill Hill school in North London, Rossington hit 161 in his first Second XI innings for Middlesex, against Northamptonshire in 2009. A first-class debut followed the next season and he was part of England's Under-19s that summer against Sri Lanka when a destructive hundred in the first Test made an impression. His maiden first-class hundred - an unbeaten 57-ball ton against Cambridge MCCU - included a string of five consecutive sixes.

His opportunities had been limited at Middlesex by the presence of John Simpson, but even so the departure of a player who had come through the Middlesex youth system, and who was described on his departure by director of cricket Angus Fraser as "an extremely talented young cricketer" was something of a surprise.

Rossington was one of the few bright spots for Northamptonshire in 2014 as they were relegated from the first division of the Championship by 91 points, losing 12 of their 16 Championship matches, eight by an innings. In such an unremittingly bleak season, his 465 runs at 31.00 were about as good as it got at Wantage Road - he also carried threat in limited-overs cricket - and his loan from Middlesex became a permanent deal at the end of the season.

He shared in one perhaps unique statistical quirk in 2015 when he joined Luke Murphy and Ben Duckett as three Northants keepers who made a hundred in the same Championship innings, Surrey the victims.

ESPNcricinfo staff