Ashton Agar

Ashton Agar was unknown to the world only until the age of 19 when he made his surprise Test debut for Australia in the 2013 Ashes series. Agar hails from Victoria and he is a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and a handy batter at the lower order. He has been part of Victoria’s squad since the youth levels. After playing at the Under-17 level and Under-19, he was selected to play for Australia at the Under-19 level and was eventually part of their World Cup squad in the 2012 edition.

However, after playing his youth level cricket for Victoria he failed to make it to the senior level team and as a result, he moved to Western Australia and was awarded the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) contract in the 2012/13 season.

Agar made his Sheffield Shield debut for WACA in early January 2013 and went on to make his List-A debut later the same month. He did impress with the bat in his First-Class debut game and grabbed a total of 5 wickets in his first two List-A games. Post his domestic debut, Agar was selected in Australia A squad against England and Ireland in English conditions.

Owing to his noteworthy performances in England, Michael Clarke decided to pick Agar over the experienced Nathan Lyon against England at Trent Bridge in the Ashes series 2013. At the age of 19, without much experience in domestic cricket, Agar received his Baggy Green in the first Test itself. He scored 98 runs while batting at number 11 and put up a 163-run partnership with Phil Hughes, and broke many records. Agar though failed to impress with the ball. He was part of the second Test but was dropped later and lost his spot in the side for a few years.

After his Test debut, Agar was picked by Perth Scorchers and he went on to make his T20 debut for them in the 2013 Champion League Twenty20. He did enjoy some success later in the Sheffield Shield season of 2014/15 and as a result, he was named in Australia’s squad against India in 2014/15. However, he did not get a chance to play a game.

In September 2015, he made his ODI debut against England and went to make his T20I debut for them against South Africa in 2016. He eventually made a Test comeback in 2017 against Bangladesh and put up impressive performances with the ball and with the bat as well. Over the years, Agar has been part of only Australia’s white-ball format. In 2020 against South Africa he became the second bowler from Australia to take a T20I hat-trick and ended up with a five-wicket haul in that game.