As attention returns to international cricket after the completion of the Hundred, on a chill, windswept day at Headingley there was further evidence of the increasingly red-hot reputation of Sonny Baker, whose continued emergence as a bowler with Ashes ambitions coincided with Jamie Overton’s decision to surrender his own by announcing an indefinite break from the first-class game.
The 22-year-old Baker will make his senior international debut on Tuesday in the first one-day international against South Africa, opening the bowling alongside the returning Jofra Archer, knowing that positive performances in this series could sway selectors who are already seriously considering him as a seam bowling option for the Ashes after a breakout summer for Hampshire and Manchester Originals.
