Australian cricket’s new boy wonder: Ashton Agar
He is 19, he is a bowler by trade and a year ago he was plying his trade in a second 11 at Australian club Richmond. Now Ashton Agar is officially an Australian cricketing legend.
He took to the crease at Trent Bridge at number 11 – on his test match debut.
Standing up to face an England attack that had decimated Australia’s batting as five wickets fell in the first hour. No-one apart from himself expected much.
It took him just an hour to knock up his 50, a feat remarkable enough in itself. Twenty minutes later, at lunch, he had reached 69.
Then in a captivating 38 minutes after lunch he welted his way toward his first test century, only to fall agonisingly two runs short – caught on the mid-wicket boundary by his fellow spinner Graeme Swann.
Swan celebrated like he had won the Ashes single-handedly and the Trent Bridge crowd roared its appreciation having just witnesses one of the greatest rear guard displays of batting in cricket history.
Ashton Agar is now in the record books – having hit the best ever score for a number 11 batsman of 98. On the way he hit two sixes and twelve fours, and all against a rampant English bowling attack.
Meteoric rise
His rise through the ranks in Australian cricket has been meteoric.
Born in Melbourne, his mother is Sri Lankan, his father Australian. He represented Victoria at under-17 and made his first impact at the 2010–11 National Under-17 Championships, where he took 16 wickets.
He was selected to play for the Australian under-19’s against the West Indies under-19’s, and went on to play 10 one day internationals at that level.
His first contract was with Western Australia, he made his first class cricket debut only this January. A month later, in perhaps a sign of things to come, he hit 53 in his state’s second innings.
The selectors were taking note. He was picked for the Australian squad that toured India over the winter, playing just a single match. By March his batting was starting to make waves. In a match against Tasmania he hit 71 not out in Western Australia’s fourth innings.
Next in a State Shield match against South Australia he was involved in a last wicket stand of 68, allowing his team to win by just one run.
Selected to tour England, Scotland, and Ireland with Australian A last month, he did well in the warm up games.
Then came his call up to the senior squad for the Ashes. The rest is now, literally, history.