Saif Zaib

Saif Zaib was at risk of becoming an unfulfilled talent heading into the 2025 season. Instead, he scored more runs (1425) in the County Championship than anyone else in the country, with six hundreds, and was widely considered unfortunate to miss out on selection for the England Lions' tour to Australia. He cited the birth of his daughter in the spring and the arrival of Darren Lehmann - like Zaib, a free-scoring left-handed middle-order batter - as Northamptonshire's head coach as the primary reasons for his new-found consistency.

By that stage, Zaib had been considered a future star for more than a decade. It was in May 2014 that he became the first 15-year-old to play for Northants - in a non-first-class fixture against Durham UCCE - and he was soon offered a professional contract while still studying at RGS Wycombe. But he struggled to convert his potential into performance, and it took him until 2021 to score his maiden professional hundred, against Sussex at Wantage Road. He started to become a consistent performer in the middle order in the T20 Blast and earned Hundred deals with Northern Superchargers and Welsh Fire, before finally proving himself against the red ball in his stellar 2025 summer.
ESPNcricinfo staff