Will Smeed

Will Smeed announced himself to the world as a young player to watch when he became the first batter to score a hundred in the Hundred at the age of 20. Smeed had already broken onto the franchise circuit by that stage, scoring 99 for Quetta Gladiators in the PSL after impressing for his home club Somerset in the T20 Blast, and epitomised the modern young player with his attacking intent at the top of the order: "My role is to just try and smack it," he said.

Smeed made a groundbreaking decision later that year, moving to a white-ball contract with Somerset and thereby quitting first-class cricket before he had played a game of it. He had endured a lean run in the second XI earlier that year, averaging 15, and reasoned that he wanted to "try to be the best that I can be". He scored over 500 runs in Somerset's Blast triumph the following summer, but did not replicate that success in other franchise leagues and switched back to an all-format deal ahead of the 2025 summer - though his wait for a first-class debut continued. His returns for Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred declined, but he scored 620 runs - including a match-winning 94 in the final - to take Somerset to their second Blast title in three seasons.

A product of King's College Taunton - like his county team-mates Tom Banton and James Rew - Smeed first marked himself out as a player with huge potential at 16, when he and Marcus Trescothick scored hundreds in the same 2nd XI innings. Two years later, he cracked 82 off 49 against rivals Gloucestershire in his second professional game in the 2020 T20 Blast, and he soon made a mark in the Hundred as a late replacement at Phoenix. His early experience was largely limited to the shortest formats, though he showed a glimpse of his potential as a 50-over player when cracking 90 off 56 balls on England Lions debut against the touring South Africans in 2022, in a match which did not have List A status. Smeed also juggled cricket with an economics and maths degree at the Open University in the early years of his career.