PROFILE

Yorkshire’s 2011 Player of the Year, capped in July, over a thousand Championship runs, plenty more in the one-day arena and his wicket-keeping is improving all the time. Add to that some impressive displays for England Lions which led to a full England call-up and a fairy-tale ODI debut for England against India and the 22-year-old’s star has risen rapidly. The sky is the limit for Jonny. 

He has improved year-on-year since his Championship debut in 2009 and has an appetite for a challenge and a level head in the most pressured of environments. He turned a maiden first-class century into 205 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, followed that with a second Championship century against Somerset at Taunton and ended the LV= County Championship campaign with 1015 runs at 46.13. A century against Middlesex at Lord’s in the CB40 in early August boosted his one-day career. Yorkshire’s loss may be England’s gain in 2012 if Jonny continues to impress.

In 2010, the difficult second season syndrome did not seem to affect Jonny who continued his cricketing development with an unflappable manner in 2010. Given the four-day gloves by new Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, he played in all of Yorkshire’s Championship matches, scoring 918 first-class runs at 41.72 and collecting 29 catches and 5 stumpings. When Gerard Brophy won his place back in the Championship 1st Team Jonny relinquished the gloves and played as a batsman.

The most pleasing attribute displayed by Jonny in 2010 was his ability to score important runs under pressure. He scored 64 not out on the final afternoon as Yorkshire chased down 200 to triumph over Warwickshire at Headingley Carnegie in July and made 63 not out as Yorkshire chased 209 to beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in September. In the opening Championship fixture he made his highest score of the summer, scoring 81 and combining with Jacques Rudolph (69*) as Yorkshire chased down 291 to beat Warwickshire at Edgbaston. That elusive maiden first-class century is not far away.

Jonny played in 9 CB40 matches, scoring 153 runs at 30.60 with a highest score of 46 not out. He also played 15 FPt20 matches, scoring 219 runs at 21.90. At the end of the 2010 season he was named Yorkshire’s Young Player of the Year for the second year running and his performances led to selection for the England Performance Programme squad to tour Australia in 2010/11.

Jonny began the 2009 summer in the Yorkshire 2nd Team, but after scoring an unbeaten 202 against Leicestershire he made his 1st Team debut at Headingley Carnegie against Somerset in the Championship, hitting 28 and an unbeaten 82, the first of six half-centuries during the season, five of which were unbeaten. In a dozen matches he scored 592 runs to finish third in the batting averages with 45.53.

Jonny’s father, David, was one of Yorkshire’s ‘greats’ and his boy is proving to be a chip off the old block.

In 2008 Jonny was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year award. This was for the form he showed in 2007 for St Peter's School, York when he scored 654 runs at an average of 218.

JAMES BUTTLER
January 2012