Luke Wright

For the American politician, see Luke Edward Wright.

Luke Wright

Personal information
Full name	Luke James Wright
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Role	All-rounder
International information
National side	England
ODI debut (cap 204)	5 September 2007 v India
Last ODI	29 November 2009 v South Africa
ODI shirt no.	45
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2004–present	Sussex
2003	Leicestershire
Career statistics
Competition ODI FC LA T20I Matches – – – – Runs scored – – – – Batting average – – – – 100s/50s –/– –/– –/– –/– Top score – – – – Balls bowled – – – – Wickets – – – – Bowling average – – – – 5 wickets in innings – – – – 10 wickets in match – – – – Best bowling – – – – Catches/stumpings –/– –/– –/– –/–
Source: CricketArchive, 19 December 2009

Luke James Wright (born 7 March 1985) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. Born in Grantham, Wright joined Sussex in 2004, having started his career at Leicestershire. He was named in England's squad for the Under-19 World Cup in 2004, and joined the International Twenty20 squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship in September 2007. He made his One Day International debut on 5 September 2007 against India.

County career

Wright hit a century on debut for Sussex, and has won the Denis Compton medal on three separate occasions during his domestic career. On 26 June 2007 he smashed his maiden domestic Twenty20 Cup century, scoring 103 from only 45 balls, including 11 fours and six sixes before being bowled by Yasir Arafat in Sussex's 7 wicket win over Kent at Canterbury. Although Sussex were defeated in the semi-finals, Wright ended up as the highest run scorer of the competition. Wright has also found success in the longer one day formats, hitting 125 against Gloucestershire from 73 deliveries.

In April 2008, Wright played for the MCC at the opening match of the 2008 country season. Making 15 in the first innings while Sussex were bowled out for 171, he hit a quickfire 155* from 185 deliveries, with 21 fours and three sixes, during a rain-interrupted second innings, his highest score thus far. In May 2008 he was selected for the England Lions team to face the touring New Zealand side at the beginning of the latter's tour of England. With the Lions struggling, Wright hit 120 off 131 deliveries to bring them to 280 all out, giving rise to speculation about his place in the national team.

England career

Wright represented England at Under-17 level. In 2003 he travelled to Australia with the Under-19 team and took a hat-trick against South Africa, finishing with match figures of 5/46. In February 2006 he toured the West Indies to bolster the England A team.

In July 2007, he was selected in the preliminary 30-man England Squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship in September, having been the top domestic Twenty20 scorer with 346 runs that season, and on 6 August he was named in the final 15-man squad. On 3 September it was announced that he would also join the England ODI squad as a replacement for the injured Ravi Bopara and Andrew Flintoff for the final two matches against India.

On 5 September 2007 Wright made his one day international debut against India at The Oval, London; hitting a half century in a 106 run 6th wicket stand with Middlesex batsmen Owais Shah. Wright was run out on 50, only by a matter of inches after facing just 39 balls, and received a standing ovation. In his second match at Lords he was out for a second ball duck. He also took a good low catch to remove Gautam Gambhir.

Wright was selected for the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, and played his first match on 13 September against Zimbabwe, where he was out caught behind on this first ball. He then suffered a number of ducks and single figure scores during the tournament, batting at both number 3 and down in the lower order. Wright was selected for the 2008 Tour to New Zealand, and performed very well in the practice matches: against Canterbury he scored 42* off only 15 balls, in the first practice match. In the second he took 3-31, also against Canterbury. In the ODI series, which England went on to lose, Wright hit 71 runs at 35.5, only playing three of the five matches. He also sent down five overs at the cost of 28 runs. These overs included the final over of an tied-ODI, where New Zealand needed seven to win and only managed six from Wright's bowling. He was not, however, selected for any of the test series that England went on to win 2:1.

In the home series against New Zealand, he played in the twenty 20 and also in the following ODI series.

In October 2009, Wright was called up to England's Test squad for the first time. He was selected for the winter tour of South Africa to fill the all-rounder's spot vacated by Andrew Flintoff's retirement after the 2009 Ashes. Geoff Miller, England's chairman of selectors, said "The retirement of Andrew Flintoff has created a vacancy for an all-rounder in the squad and while we do not see Luke Wright as a like for like replacement for Andrew, we are excited by the way in which his all-round game continues to develop and believe he can make an impact at Test level".

External links

• Luke Wright at the England and Wales Cricket Board
• Luke Wright at Cricinfo