Ben Sanderson

Ben Sanderson enjoyed the finest season of his career in 2018, at 29, when he took 60 Championship wickets for Northants at only 16.70, one of the few bright spots in a largely depressing season. It was further evidence that a player who was almost lost to the game had turned himself into one of the most reliable performers on the county circuit.

Sanderson played three games for Yorkshire as a seam bowler before he was released in 2011. He joined the Minor County, Shropshire, and became involved with the family business before making a comeback to county cricket four years later. Playing club cricket in up-country Queensland, where he was working on a farm to keep fit, he then won a trial with Northants.

That return worked out well in 2016 in a Championship season that went from strength to strength, taking 55 second division wickets at 21 apiece. A career-best 7-22 against Glamorgan on an uneven pitch in Swansea ("the food is not great here but I had a protein shake at lunch and that seemed to work") won him a new three-year contract and he bettered it the following month with 8-73 against Gloucestershire as Northants finished the season with victory.
ESPNcricinfo staff