Ones to Watch - Euan Woods

While two of his former England Under-19 team-mates, Harry Brook and Ollie Pope, will be getting ready this weekend for this summer’s Ashes series, all-rounder Euan Woods will be playing for Berkshire in their National Counties Trophy match against Cornwall at Slough.

Woods toured India with Brook and Pope with England Under-19s in 2016/17 and with Brook in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand the following winter while he was on Surrey’s Academy.

Surprisingly neither Surrey or any other county has yet to offer Woods a senior professional cricket even though has been a key contributor to Berkshire’s domination of National Counties cricket over the past seven years.

Left-hander Woods has scored more than 2,000 runs and taken 91 wickets with his off-spin in 30 matches in the Durant Cricket National Counties Championship, 758 runs and 50 wickets in 31 appearances in the 50 overs National Counties Trophy and a further 395 runs and 27 wickets in the National Counties T20 competition.

Although Woods made his Berkshire debut in 2015 he still only 24 and is still ambitious to be given the chance to prove himself at first-class level.

Having put himself in the shop window at the National Counties Player ID Day at Loughborough in March, which was attended by coaches and scouts from a number of first-class counties, Woods has continued to perform consistently for Berkshire this season.

In his most recent Trophy match he opened the bowling on a spin-friendly wicket, took one for 27 in eight overs and then top-scored with a run-a-ball 37 not out to see Berkshire, the defending champions, to a comfortable four wickets win.