For somebody who had yet to take a Championship wicket by the end of 2018 - he had played two matches for Middlesex - Tom Barber was noticeably talked about. He fractured the thumb of England's white-ball captain Eoin Morgan in Middlesex training and also broke the record for the fastest delivery in testing at the national performance centre at Loughborough, previously held by Stuart Meaker. Nothing creates a sense of excitement in cricket than talk of an out-and-out fast bowler.

Barber, a left-arm quick, announced himself to the county game as a teenager by dismissing Kane Williamson and Andrew Gale in consecutive deliveries against Yorkshire in the 50-over competition but thereafter struggled to break into the Hampshire first team.

Barber won England U-19 honours, beginning with a tour of South Africa tour in 2012. He was given opportunities for Hampshire second XI in 2013 and was awarded a two-year scholarship contract in 2014. He was released at the end of 2015 and went on to represent Dorset where Paul Prichard, the former Essex batsman, recommended him to Middlesex. Invited to bowl at a Middlesex training session in 2016, he made a positive impression and was taken on by the MCC Young Cricketers the following year.

He played two NatWest T20 matches for Middlesex in 2017, one against his former club, and was rewarded with a professional contract at the end of the season. Daniel Vettori, Middlesex's T20 coach, was a fan and called him as exciting as Mitchell Starc at the same age, but in seven matches he disappeared at more than 12 an over, a work very much in progress, but an exciting work nonetheless.

ESPNcricinfo staff