A talented younger who has already played in a World Cup final
Will Luxton scored two centuries of note in 2024, turning that promise into performance.
The 21-year-old hit an unbeaten 112 – batting at five – at the start of July for a First-Class Counties Select XI at Beckenham against the touring West Indian Test team.
Just over a month later, he hit a superb 105 not out from number three for Yorkshire in a Metro Bank One-Day Cup win over Warwickshire at Rugby School. It was his maiden first-team century for his home county.
Last summer proved a landmark one for the Keighley-born up and comer, with him also posting a maiden first-class fifty – 59 – in the first innings of Yorkshire’s County Championship win over Sussex at Scarborough in late August.
Luxton’s second-team form was excellent throughout 2024 as well, scoring 911 runs in red ball and T20 cricket at an average of 56.93, including a best of 188.
He warmed up for 2025 with a spell of winter cricket for Melbourne club Greenvale.
Luxton has previously has captained Yorkshire’s Academy and also represented the England Under 19s in a World Cup final.
The right-hander, educated at Bradford Grammar School, skippered the county’s colts in 2021 before helping his country’s teenagers reach the U19 50-over final when they were beaten by India in the Caribbean at the start of 2022.
Luxton played seven times for Yorkshire’s first-team in the One-Day Cup in 2021, scoring 165 runs in six innings. That was his first taste of first-team cricket.
His standout innings was a superb 68 – he helped the Vikings recover from 69-6 – on debut against Northamptonshire at Scarborough in late July, a match that eventually ended up as a rainy No Result.
The following summer, in late July, Luxton bettered that in the same competition with an exhilarating 84 in a high-scoring victory over Northamptonshire at Yorkshire.
That innings came just a fortnight after Ottis Gibson had handed him a first-class debut in a Championship defeat against champions to be Surrey at Scarborough when he posted middle order scores of 31 and 14.
In 2023, he made his Vitality Blast debut, playing three matches in all, and in second-team cricket he shared a remarkable unbroken first-wicket stand of 257 with James Wharton in a second-team T20 friendly win over the South Asian Cricket Academy, hitting 104.
Tall and wiry with deceptive power, he is also an outstanding fielder.
UPDATED: Feb 2025.
