Second-team champion aiming for high honours
Top order batter James Wharton will no doubt look back on 2022 as quite some year when his playing days are done. Personal and team success was achieved, starting with an LV= Insurance County Championship debut at Gloucestershire.
Wharton, 22, played three Division One games through a summer which saw him star as the second team won their Championship title.
He contributed 493 runs, including two fifties and two centuries to that success. The last of those tons came during the title-clinching draw at Kent in September. During a disappointing T20 campaign team wise for the seconds, he also claimed a hat-trick with his off-spinners in a game against Derbyshire.
The Huddersfield-born right-hander debuted for the first team during a Vitality Blast match against Lancashire at Headingley in 2020, there was something quite noticeable – his similarity in set up at the crease to Joe Root.
The former England Test captain is a hero of Wharton’s, going some way to explaining the similarities.
Like Root, he is no stranger to a big score. His first of three second-team centuries to date was a fine 162 in a Championship draw against Leicestershire at Kibworth in 2018.
A product of the Scholes club, he first represented Yorkshire at Under 14s and has gone on to captain the Academy. He also led the second five times in 2022.
