Joshua Little - Ireland - Bowler

Joshua Little, in contrast to his name, is a tall left-arm fast bowler who plays for the Ireland national team. Born in 1999, the pacer is still a teenager and has a long career ahead of him, and certainly has the pace to bother the best batsmen around the world. A bowler who relies on early swing in the air, and is also capable of extracting subtle movement off the seam, is certainly a raw asset to an aging Irish side.

Little made his List A debut for Leinster Lightning in the 2018 Inter-Provincial Cup in June 2018 and his first-class debut for Leinster Lightning as well, later in the same month. He made his T20I debut against Hong Kong on the 5th of September 2016. Little was a little older than 16 at the time of his debut, making him the second-youngest to have played at the international level, after Waqas Khan of Hong Kong.

Little's talent tempted the selectors to pick him for the U-19 World Cup in 2016. He was also included in Ireland's T20I squad for the series against Afghanistan in India in March 2017 but had to pull out of it owing to the need to write an exam. In December 2017, he was named in Ireland's squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup and played the pace spearhead throughout the tournament for Ireland.

In January 2019, he was named in Ireland's T20I and ODI squads against Afghanistan in Dehradun, India. With age on his side, and Ireland having just been introduced as a Test nation, the future seems very bright for Little if he is able to maintain his fitness with sustained performances over the years.

Written by Rishi Roy