Thomas James Kelly (born 14 December 2000) is an Australian

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

against

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

on 28 November 2021 during the 2021–22 Marsh One-Day Cup. He is the twin brother of Australian cricketer

Corey Kelly Corey Kelly (born 14 December 2000) is an Australian cricketer. He made his List A debut for South Australia against Western Australia on 2 March 2021 as part of the 2020–21 Marsh One-Day Cup. Personal life Corey Kelly was born on 14 De ...

. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut on 11 December 2021, for the

Adelaide Strikers The Adelaide Strikers are an Australian professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia that compete in the Big Bash League (BBL).Cricket Australia (n.d), Teams and Players, Cricket Australia, accessed 1 Decemb ...

in the

2021–22 Big Bash League season The 2021–22 Big Bash League season or BBL, 11 was the eleventh season of the Big Bash League, the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was played from 5 December 2021 until 28 January 2022. Per ...

Personal life

Thomas Kelly was born on 14 December 2000 in the southern suburbs of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, to

Matthew Kelly Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English actor and television presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television sitcom actor, game-show panellist and television prese ...

, a member of the original

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

squad for the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

, and Tina. He is the identical twin brother of fellow cricketer

, who was born two minutes earlier; they have a younger sister, Lucy. Kelly grew up in a sports-focused family influenced by his father's AFL career. The twins played over 100 games of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

with Mitcham Hawks Football Club and

Norwood Football Club The Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Its home ground is Norwood Oval, Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is often referred ...

before shifting their focus to cricket, which the elder Kelly had also played.

Career

The Kelly brothers began playing cricket at the school level. Before the age of fifteen, Corey was predominantly a batter and Thomas predominantly a bowler; they switched roles after discovering each had a greater affinity for the opposite position. Thomas Kelly narrowly missed out on being selected to appear on Australia's team for the

2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 17 January to 9 February 2020. It was the thirteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be ...

in South Africa, while his brother was selected to play for the team. Kelly spent his early career as a player for the

Sturt Cricket Club The Sturt Cricket Club (formerly the Unley Cricket Club) is a semi-professional cricket club in Adelaide, South Australia. It competes in the South Australian Grade Cricket League, which is administered by the South Australian Cricket Association ...

, which he described in 2021 as being "in an awesome spot at the moment". At the age of 20, the Kelly brothers were signed to the

West End Redbacks The South Australia men's cricket team is an Australian men's professional first-class cricket team based in the state of South Australia. South Australia play their home matches at Adelaide Oval and Karen Rolton Oval, they are the state crick ...

, South Australia's professional

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

team. They became the first twins to play cricket together for South Australia. They played their debut game for the Redbacks in November 2021. Though South Australia lost the game, Kelly described his debut as "unbelievable" and as an experience he was "very fortunate" to have had. Corey and Thomas Kelly are the first identical twins to play first class cricket on the same team in Australia since

Kate Kate may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...

and

Alex Blackwell Alexandra Joy Blackwell (born 31 August 1983) is a former professional cricketer and Australian women's cricket captain who played for New South Wales Breakers, New South Wales and Australia national women's cricket team, Australia as a special ...

. He made his first-class debut on 23 March 2022, for

in the

2021–22 Sheffield Shield season The 2021–22 Sheffield Shield season was the 120th of the Australian inter-state domestic first-class cricket competition. Queensland were the defending champions. Initially, on 21 July 2021, Cricket Australia confirmed all the fixtures for ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Thomas 2000 births Living people Australian cricketers Adelaide Strikers cricketers South Australia cricketers Australian twins Cricketers from Adelaide 21st-century Australian sportsmen