Alex Hughes

Alex Hughes, a product of the Derbyshire academy, is a Staffordshire-born allrounder who bowls right-arm seam and can bat at the top of the order. He gained the reputation as a potential captain-in-waiting after Derbyshire's director of cricket Kim Barnett praised his "exceptional leadership skills" in awarding him a new two-year contract in September 2016. Hughes had skippered Derbyshire in nine limited-overs matches, standing in for the injured Wes Durston.

Hughes, a product of Staffordshire (where Barnett was briefly a team-mate) and the Derbyshire Academy, made his first-team debut for Derbyshire against Yorkshire in the 2011 Friends Life t20. His first-class debut followed against Sussex at Hove in August 2013, and he shared in a spurt of late-season success for the county which failed to spare them from relegation. An attacking hundred against Northants in a miserable 2015 for Derbyshire was his first in the Championship.

Derbyshire finished bottom of Division Two, without a win, in 2016, but Hughes was at the centre of an improved showing the following summer, scoring 800 first-class runs at 40.00. He drew confidence from Derbyshire's strong T20 campaign - they reached the quarter-finals for only the second time - and was named as the county's Player of the Year.

In 2018, he topped the Derbyshire wicket charts in the Blast and played every game in the Championship; the following summer he helped secure a first T20 Finals Day appearance in the club's history. But Hughes' batting tailed off over the next three seasons and although he set a new mark as Derbyshire's all-time leading T20 wicket-taker, he retired towards the end of 2022, aged 31, to take up a role as analyst on the backroom staff.
ESPNcricinfo staff