Zak Chappell

Zak Chappell moved to Derbyshire ahead of the 2023 season looking to reestablish himself after four seasons on the fringes at Nottinghamshire, with head coach Mickey Arthur describing the move as "an easy sell", adding: "I want a guy who is coming here and wants to use us to play for England." His returns in red-ball cricket were solid rather than spectacular, but an impressive Blast - 26 wickets at 18.03 - saw him drafted in by Oval Invincibles on their way to a maiden men's Hundred title.

Chappell had been on England's radar from an early age and followed the route trod by Stuart Broad a decade or so earlier when he left Leicestershire for Nottinghamshire. But Chappell's time at Trent Bridge saw him make 23 appearances and take 39 wickets across formats, interspersed with a couple of loan spells at Gloucestershire, as he struggled to make an impact in the first team.

At the age of 19, Chappell wrote his name in Leicestershire's records despite falling four runs short of a century on his first-class debut against Derbyshire. Chappell scored 96 from 122 balls, the highest-ever innings by a Leicestershire No. 10, before Mark Footitt yorked him. But it was as a tall seam bowler that he most attracted attention and in his farewell season he underlined his potential with a career-best 6 for 33 against Northamptonshire. His cricket upbringing was at Stamford School under the former Kent and England seamer Dean Headley. England thought highly enough of him to put him on a Pace Bowling programme in the 2017-18 winter even though his Championship season had brought only nine wickets at 57.11; his was very much a story of perceived potential.

After an impressive showing on the England Lions tour to India at the start of 2019, the rest of the year could hardly have gone worse. Chappell failed to take a wicket in his six first-team appearances for Nottinghamshire, while a stint at Gloucestershire yielded a solitary scalp in a T20. His opportunities were limited by injury, and he missed out on selection in the inaugural Hundred draft.
ESPNcricinfo staff