Ashton Agar
Ashton Agar - Australian Bowler
Ashton Agar was born on October 14, 1993 in Melbourne, Australia. He is older brother of Wes Agar. He plays for the national team and one of the most successful teams in the local BBL league – the Perth Scorchers.
Ashton Agar: playing career
Ashton began trying his hand at cricket while being a college student. He proved himself well in the local U-17 championship, taking 16 wickets, after which he received an invitation to the U-19 team, which was to play in the UAE. Having made his debut for Australia at the age of 17, he was included in the application for the World Cup, but remained in the reserve and did not play a single match.
Agar claimed to be in the Victoria team in the 2012-2013 season but was refused and, having moved to the west of the country, soon signed a contract with the WACA (Western Australian Cricket Association). The rookie made his debut in a match against New South Wales in early 2013, and soon he formed a reliable pairing with Michael Hogan. In the same month, Ashton played for Western Australia for the first time in limited overs, scoring against Queensland.
Agar entered the field for the first time wearing the Sheffield Shield colors a year later. Although the national team did not count on him in test matches, Agar soon received the welcome invitation and was even able to set several records on the field, but he still failed to gain a foothold in the team. Despite temporary difficulties, he finished the season with 229 runs (the third best among the team’s batsmen). Ashton Agar joined the Perth Scorchers in the Champions League T20 in the same year, taking on the batsman’s role.
Agar took part in eight out of ten Perth matches in the next season, passing ahead only two spinners – Cameron Boyce and Adam Zampa.
In the period from 2012 to 2021 Ashton managed to play for:
- the Western Australia (since 2012);
- the Perth Scorchers (since 2013);
- the Middlesex (2018);
- the Warwickshire (2019).
Ashton Agar: performing internationally
Ashton Agar was invited to tour England, Scotland and Ireland in 2013. Along with Fawad Ahmed, an Australian batsman of Pakistani descent, he got into the reserve: it was assumed that the rookies would fight for the position of a spinner to perform in the Ashes series. Agar got the place of Nathan Lyon’s understudy, and the player worked hard to prove himself in Australia A and get the opportunity to perform in test matches. Having achieved success, he made his debut for the national team at 19 years and 269 days (12th place on the list of the youngest rookies of the national team of all history). In the first match, he made 98 runs and chalked up several equally important records while simultaneously creating an effective link with Philip Hughes (163 runs).
Despite early successes, Ashton’s results soon began to decline. Lyon again won a spot in the national team, and he never entered the field in the 2014-2015 Indian tour. However, he was included in the extended list of players. As a result, Ashton Agar had to be content with a place in the List A in the next season. At the same time, he played in the limited overs format for the first time, and a little later, he tried his hand on ODI and T20I, entering the field as part of the team that was to play with South Africa in March 2016 year.
Agar got the opportunity to return to the test team in 2017. Unfortunately, despite the impressive statistics in the match against the Bangladesh (5 wickets and 41 not-outs), the team lost to the Bangladeshi for the first time in history. Ashton signed a full-season contract with Cricket Australia in the spring of the following year. Gradually, he managed to improve his position: for example, in the first T20I match against South Africa in February 2020, he became the second Australian bowler to score a hat-trick.
Agar was offered a new contract in April 2020. In the summer, he was on the preliminary list of players who were to go on a tour of England, and he got a place in the team a little later. Ashton Agar again made a name for himself with an outstanding record against New Zealand (6/30 for four overs) in March 2021, finishing fifth on the T20I’s best bowlers list by that measure.
