Zak Chappell

Zak Chappell followed the route trod by Stuart Broad a decade or so earlier when he left Leicestershire for Nottinghamshire at the end of 2018 with the intention of pursuing his England ambitions. At 22, Chappell had yet to prove that he possessed Broad's resilience with only 14 first-class matches (39 across all competitions) and a farewell season in which he had taken 16 wickets at low cost but in only four first-class games.

Chappell wrote his name in Leicestershire's records despite falling four runs short of a century on his first-class debut against Derbyshire. Chappell, at 19, scored 96 from 122 balls, the highest ever innings by a Leicestershire number 10, before Mark Footitt yorked him on the way to claiming career-best figures.

But it was as a tall seam bowler that he most attracted attention and in his farewell season he underlined his potential with a career-best 6 for 33 against Northamptonshire. His cricket upbringing was at Stamford School under the former Kent and England seamer Dean Headley. England thought highly enough of him to put him on a Pace Bowling programme in the 2017/18 close season even though his Championship season had brought only nine wickets at 57.11: his was very much a story of perceived potential.

After an impressive showing on the England Lions tour to India at the start of 2019, the rest of the year could hardly have gone worse. Chappell failed to take a wicket in his six first-team appearances for Nottinghamshire, while a loan spell at Gloucestershire yielded a solitary scalp in a T20. His opportunities were limited by injury, and he missed out on selection in the inaugural Hundred draft.
ESPNcricinfo staff