Lewis Hill

Lewis Hill, a wicketkeeper-batsman, struck a maiden Championship hundred against Surrey at The Oval in 2015 after being called up for Matthew Boyce who injured himself in practice. It was only his second first-class match. He also had the joy of hitting the winning runs against Essex at Chelmsford in June of that year as Leicestershire ended a 37-game winless run. These were high spots, though, in an otherwise largely unproductive season with the bat.

Hill graduated from the Leicestershire Academy and joined the staff in 2014. His best displays in 2016 came in the NatWest T20 Blast when he topped the club's averages with 157 runs at 39.25 and a strike rate of 150.66. But it was back in the Championship the following season where he proved himself a resourceful cricketer for a struggling side.

He struggled for runs over the next few seasons, to the extent that he needed a strong start to the 2021 season - not least after Harry Swindells had become first-choice wicketkeeper in the Championship side. But what followed was a career-best run of form as a specialist batter: he hit a first first-class ton in six years at Bristol, and finished the season with 944 runs at 44.85, with two more hundreds and five fifties to his name.

ESPNcricinfo staff