Jake Libby impressed good judges with a carefully-assembled hundred on Championship debut against Sussex at Trent Bridge in a largely inconsequential match at the end of the 2014 season at Trent Bridge. Libby became the first person for 68 years to make a century on debut for Nottinghamshire and revealed an unflappable temperament and decent technique against a Sussex attack including Chris Jordan and Steve Magoffin.

Libby, who had graduated in Sport and Exercise Science from Cardiff Met earlier in the summer, had made a first-class debut for Cardiff MCCU against Glamorgan in a prelude to the professional season in early April and, a native of Devon, later played for nearby Cornwall before attracting Notts' interest.

Hopes of advancement in 2015 were curtailed when he ruptured a cruciate ligament in the close season playing for Latrobe in Tasmania, and did not make a Championship return until September. This time there was no achievement to cherish, merely a second-ball duck. His recovery in 2016 took in a loan spell at Northants where he made a hundred against Derbyshire, and a September hundred back at Notts against Durham, but runs were in short supply the following season despite ample opportunities as Notts' opening-batting problems seemed as embedded as ever.

By 2018, Notts were in transition, but the signing of a trip of batsmen - Ben Slater, Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke - suggested that Libby would have to advance his game to be seen as an automatic starter. He did break into Notts' T20 side, however, relishing the chance to prove he could quicken his game.

ESPNcricinfo staff