Alexander Zak Lees (born 14 April 1993) is an English professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, having previously played for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. Lees made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut in 2022, and plays as a left-handed

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

Early life

Alex Lees was born in

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

, where he attended Holy Trinity Senior School. His introduction to cricket was with Bradshaw Cricket Club in the

Halifax Cricket League The Halifax Cricket League with cricket clubs in and around the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. In the league there are also clubs from the nearby Calder Valley, city of Bradford, town of Huddersfield and the Spen Valley. The leagues ...

, quickly moving from the junior ranks into senior cricket before he was a teenager. Lees left Bradshaw and move to Illingworth at the age of 13. He was attached to

from 2006, starting at under 11 level. He played for and captained the Yorkshire Academy in the

Yorkshire ECB County Premier League The Yorkshire ECB County Premier League was the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Yorkshire, England, and between 1999 and 2015 was a designated ECB Premier League. The competing teams in 2015, which was the league's l ...

, and the Yorkshire Second XI in the

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...

, before progressing to the first team. He made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

against

India A The India A cricket team is a national cricket team representing India. It is the second-tier of Indian international cricket, below the full India national cricket team. The team is currently captained by Priyank Panchal in first-class cricket a ...

in June 2010, scoring 38 runs. In April 2013, Lees made his maiden first-class century in his third first-class match, when scoring 121 against

Leeds/Bradford MCC Universities Leeds/Bradford MCC University, formerly Leeds/Bradford University Centre of Cricketing Excellence, commonly abbreviated to Leeds/Bradford MCCU, is one of six University Centres of Cricketing Excellence supported by the Marylebone Cricket Club ...

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

Cricket career

He was part of the England player development XI in both 2010 and 2011. In September 2011, Yorkshire County Cricket Club announced that Lees had been awarded a junior-pro contract. He was given plaudits from the former England opener

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

, who stated that "I think he's very good ... I like the whole package with him". Lees played his first match against an England first-class county side in April 2013, when he appeared for Yorkshire against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and scored a century in his third County Championship match with 100 against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

. In July, he played only the 50th innings of over 250 runs for Yorkshire, scoring 275 not out in the first innings of the match against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Queen's Park, Chesterfield Queen's Park is a county cricket ground located in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee in 1887. It has a small pavilion and is surrounded by mature ...

. His innings was the third-highest score at the ground and also made him the youngest Yorkshire player to score a double hundred. In August 2013, Lees was selected to play for England Lions in a two-day friendly match against the Australians at Northampton, opening the batting and scoring 33 runs. He then travelled to Australia with the England Performance Squad, though he did not pass fifty. He also played for the Lions against Sri Lanka A Emerging Players in February 2014, scoring a century in the first match. In September 2014, Lees was named the

Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year The Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been presented since the 1950 season and t ...

. On 13 August 2018, Lees signed for

on loan until the end of the 2018 season before signing a three-year contract at the end of the season. In February 2022, Lees was named in England's

squad for their series against the West Indies. He made his Test debut on 8 March 2022, for England against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. In April 2022, in the opening round of matches in the

2022 County Championship The 2022 County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 122nd cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. The season began on 7 April and ended on 29 September 2022. Warwic ...

, Lees

carried his bat In cricket, the term carry the bat (or carry one's bat) refers to an opening batsman (no. 1 and 2) who is not dismissed ("not out") when the team innings is closed. The term is mainly used when the innings closes after all 10 wickets have fall ...

against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

, scoring an unbeaten 182 runs.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lees, Alex 1993 births Living people English cricketers England Test cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Durham cricketers Cricketers from Halifax, West Yorkshire