Matthew Fisher

"Matt Fisher: I think he is going to be an unbelievable bowler." So said team-mate Tim Bresnan after Fisher's introduction to Championship cricket in April 2015, voicing what Yorkshire - and England - have privately been hoping about this languid, lanky fast bowler in-the-making since he first came on the scene as a teenager.

By the end of the curtailed 2020 summer, however, he was still struggling to convert that early promise, as injuries restricted his development. Only twice - in 2015 and 2018 - did he manage to make 20 appearances across a season, the latter featuring half a dozen outings for England Lions. His ailments were various: hamstring problems, side strain, back stress injury, broken thumb, dislocated shoulder. But his quality remained clear, too, when he was able to play. His first-class wickets came at 26.18 in 2019 and 18.00 the following year.

And England continued to keep close tabs on his development despite those injuries. After a solid season in 2021, in which he showcased his ability to extract steepling bounce from a good length, he was rewarded with a call-up for the Lions tour to Australia. He was the standout bowler on that tour, earning a spot in the Test squad for the away series against West Indies in early 2022.

He was given a last-minute debut in Barbados after Craig Overton was taken ill before the second Test, and even claimed a wicket second-ball, but before he could build on that breakthrough in the 2022 home summer, he had succumbed to a stress fracture. After a lengthy lay-off, he bounced back, however, with a five-wicket haul for England Lions in Sri Lanka in February 2023.

Fisher's move to Surrey at the end of the 2024 season came as a surprise but he thrived on The Oval's seam-friendly wickets. He took 11 wickets in a match against eventual champions Nottinghamshire late in the 2025 season, earning himself a late call-up to England's Ashes squad as a replacement for the injured Mark Wood. He did not play, but returned to the Test side against New Zealand in June 2026.

Fisher's rise to prominence began in June 2013 when, aged 15 years and 212 days, he became the youngest post-war county cricketer in a 40-over match against Leicestershire. He was still 15 when he was first included in an England Under-19 squad for a triangular series against Bangladesh and Pakistan that summer.
ESPNcricinfo staff