Ben Cutting - Australia - Bowling Allrounder

A tall lanky giant of a medium-pacer, standing at 1.92 meters, Ben Cutting was knocking on the doors for national selection after securing the highest wicket tally for Queensland in the 2009/10 and the 2010/11 seasons of the Sheffield Shield. He was subsequently named in the squad for the home series against New Zealand, but he did not make it to the XI in any of the Tests.

He made his ODI and T20I debuts against Sri Lanka in 2013, and did moderately well with the ball, but recurring injuries prevented him from settling into the side as a regular. He last played an ODI in August 2014 against Zimbabwe at Harare.

Ben Cutting shot to stardom after his notoriously deceptive bouncers and his lower-order pinch-hitting came to the fore in limited-overs cricket. He also traveled with the team to India to play the Champions League T20 in 2013 for the Brisbane Heat. At the 2014 IPL auctions, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals to play the 7th edition of the IPL but didn't get many games, as Rajasthan's other bowlers were given preference ahead of him.

He was later signed by the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the lucrative Indian Premier League, and he rewarded their faith with a match-winning performance in the final of the 2016 edition (in which, needless to say, he was the Man of the match) scoring 39 off 15 deliveries to apply the finishing touches to the innings and then taking 2 wickets including the match-turning one of Chris Gayle.

He has been a useful addition to the Brisbane Heat franchise in the Big Bash League since the 2nd edition of the tournament, bagging 35 wickets in 41 matches. His batting the talk of the town as well, after he made a brisk maiden first-class century (109 off 78 balls) and scored a savage 98 off 48 in domestic One-Day match against Victoria. He fulfilled all the expectations with the bat as well, scoring more than 500 runs across five seasons at a strike-rate of 150. He is one of the utility players for skipper McCullum, and will certainly be one of the first names on the team-sheet for the Heat.

by Rishi Roy
as of December 2017