Amber Khan

Brent Arnel

Full name Brent John Arnel

Born January 3, 1979, Te Awamutu, Waikato

Current age 33 years 187 days

Major teams New Zealand, Northern Districts

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Brent Arnel's Profile

As a 10-year-old, Brent Arnel was kicked out of junior cricket because he bowled too fast and he was soon up against college-level players. Being pushed into the deep end so early, he recalls, helped him in the long run. Arnel is a product of a small-town upbringing, but access to facilities was never a problem because his parents owned a few indoor cricket schools in the area. It later came down to a choice between a career in cricket or basketball but he chose the former when Northern Districts came calling. He made his debut in the 2006-07 season, playing four games, but his best performance was reserved for the following season. Arnel topped the wicket charts in the State Championships with 33 wickets and his performance earned him a place in the New Zealand A squad for the tour of India. His impressive performances for the A squad against the England Lions in 2009 led to a call-up to the New Zealand Test squad against India. He didn't get a game, but earned another Test call-up the following year, against Bangladesh, as a replacement for the injured Andy McKay.

Varun Aaron

Full name Varun Raymond Aaron

Born October 29, 1989, Singhbhum, Bihar (now Jharkhand)

Current age 22 years 252 days

Major teams India, Australian Centre of Excellence, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils, India Emerging Players, Jharkhand, Jharkhand Under-19s, Kolkata Knight Riders

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Varun Aaron's Profile

In a country starved of genuinely quick bowlers, Varun Aaron grabbed the headlines when he hit 153 kph during the 2010-11 Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Gujarat. Hailing from Jharkhand, Aaron has been part of the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai since he was spotted by a talent scout at the age of 15. In his first year with the Jharkhand Under-19 side, he also played for East Zone and was later part of the India Under-19 camp. He grew up admiring Andy Roberts, and pace has been his focus since his teens. This led to two stress fractures of the back soon after he made his Ranji Trophy debut in the 2008-09 season for Jharkhand, but he continues to focus on bowling quick. Possessing a smooth run-up and a repeatable action, Aaron consistently bowls in excess of 140 kph from close to the stumps with decent control. Having earlier been part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad, he made his IPL debut in 2011 for Delhi Daredevils.

 He was part of the India Emerging Players squad that went to Australia in 2011, and after impressing there earned a call-up to the India ODI squad for the series in England. Though he did not get a game on that trip, he made his India debut in Mumbai, when England went over to the subcontinent for a return ODI series in October 2011. He made his Test debut a month later, against West Indies, also in Mumbai.

James Anderson

Full name James Michael Anderson

Born July 30, 1982, Burnley, Lancashire

Current age 29 years 341 days

Major teams England, Auckland, England Under-19s, Lancashire, Lancashire Cricket Board

Nickname Jimmy

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Height 6 ft 2 in

Education St Theodore's RC High School; St Theodore's RC Sixth Form Centre - Burnley

  James Michael Anderson's Profile

For the first six years of James Anderson's international career, the best way to sum up his bowling was to paraphrase Mother Goose: when he's good, he's very, very good - and when he's bad he's horrid. Well, fairly horrid, anyway, because when the force was with him, he was capable of irresistible spells, seemingly able to swing the ball round corners at an impressive speed. 

In 2010 however, Anderson came of age in a staggeringly comprehensive fashion. No longer content with being unplayable when the mood caught him, he took the decision to shelve the "magic balls" and concentrated on hammering out a rock-solid line and length, with dot balls and maidens his new holy grail. The upshot was a scintillating year in which he proved unhittable in every sense, with an economy rate that ramped up the pressure in every spell, and a range of weapons that made him a threat on every surface he was presented with.

A career-best 11-wicket haul against Pakistan at Trent Bridge was the prelude to a coming-of-age tour of Australia in the winter of 2010-11. Anderson arrived to a torrent of doubters, who recalled his forlorn performance on the preceding Ashes four years earlier, in which he had taken five wickets at 82.60. But he left with a series-sealing 24 scalps at 26.04, and a reputation transformed. Deadly with conventional swing and seam, and with a new line in reverse swing as well, he had become arguably the most complete fast bowler in the world.

It had been a long journey to fulfilment. Anderson had played only three one-day games for Lancashire when he was hurried into England's one-day squad in Australia in 2002-03 as cover for Andy Caddick. He didn't have a number - or even a name - on his shirt, but a remarkable ten-over stint, costing just 12 runs, in century heat at Adelaide earned him a World Cup spot. There, he produced a matchwinning spell against Pakistan before a sobering last-over disaster against Australia.

Five wickets followed in the first innings of his debut Test, against Zimbabwe at home in 2003, then a one-day hat-trick against Pakistan ... but then his fortunes waned. For a couple of years Anderson was a peripheral net bowler. A stress fracture kept him out for most of 2006, but he still made the Australian tour and the World Cup. And suddenly, in the absence of the entire Ashes-winning attack in the second half of 2007, Anderson looked the part of pack leader again.

New Zealand were blown away in Nottingham in 2008 (Anderson 7 for 43); the following May the West Indians looked clueless in Chester-le-Street (nine wickets in the match); and back at Trent Bridge in 2010 Pakistan's inexperienced batsmen could hardly lay a bat on him (5 for 54 and 6 for 17).

Anderson's left-hand batting has also steadily improved from his early days as a fully paid-up rabbit: one of his unlikelier landmarks was going 54 Test innings before collecting a duck, an England record. At Cardiff in 2009 he survived for 69 nail-chewing minutes to help stave off defeat by Australia. He is also a superb fielder.

Abdur Razzak

Full name Abdur Razzak

Born June 15, 1982, Khulna

Current age 30 years 19 days

Major teams Bangladesh, Asia XI, Khulna Division, Royal Challengers Bangalore

Also known as Raj

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox

Abdur Razzak's Profile

The latest in Bangladesh's seemingly never-ending supply of left-arm spinners, Abdur Razzaq (no relation to the similarly named Pakistan allrounder) made his mark when he helped unheralded Khulna to their first-ever National Cricket League title in 2001-02.

Tall, with a high action, he was also instrumental in Victoria Sporting Club's surprise triumph in the 2002-03 Dhaka Premier Division. He was given his A-team debut during the five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe early in 2004, and took the opportunity well with 15 wickets, including a matchwinning 7 for 17 in the third encounter on the batting paradise of Dhaka's Bangabandhu National Stadium.

He has an uncanny ability to pin batsmen down, although the position of his bowling arm during delivery is a worry, and his action has been reported in the past. Bangladesh's coaching staff are using video technology to help iron out anything suspicious. He took 3 for 17 on his one-day debut against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup in Colombo in 2004, but was reported for a suspect action after the next match, against Pakistan.

Left out of the Champions Trophy in England later that year, "Raj" played just one ODI - against Zimbabwe in January 2005 - before he was recalled for the home series against Sri Lanka in February 2006. He made his Test debut two months later, called up for the second Test against Australia on a turning track at Chittagong (even the Aussies played three spinners), but failed to take a wicket. He has, however, become a regular in the one-day team and his parsimonious left-arm spin was effective in the Champions Trophy in October. Razzak achieved his career-best figures of 5 for 33 against Zimbabwe in December 2006.

In 2008 he was reported for a suspect action again and this time an independent analysis found that he bent his arm up to 28 degrees - 13 more than the permissible limit. He was suspended from bowling in international cricket. The ICC cleared him the following year and soon after, was picked for the World Twenty20 in England.

Ileana Shakti

George John Bailey

George John Bailey

Born September 7, 1982, Launceston, Tasmania

Current age 29 years 298 days

Major teams Australia, Scotland, Australia A, Chennai Super Kings, Melbourne Stars, Tasmania

Nickname Hector

Playing role Top-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium

Height 1.78 m 

George John Bailey's Profile,

An important man in Tasmania's middle order for the past few seasons, George Bailey added the captaincy to his list of responsibilities for 2009-10. He had been the deputy under Daniel Marsh for three seasons and it was no surprise, when Marsh stepped down, that Bailey was named as his successor. In his first season as full-time captain he led the Tigers to the FR Cup title and, having been the competition's second-top scorer with 538 runs at 59.77 including his first century, was called into Australia's ODI squad for the Chappell-Hadlee Series in March 2010. He didn't play any match in that series, but his captaincy for Tasmania so impressed the selectors that he was named Australia's Twenty20 captain in the 2011-12 season. That made him the first player since Dave Gregory in the first Test match in 1877, to be named captain in his first match for Australia in any format. This despite his ordinary batting record in the format: he'd scored only one T20 half-century in the last three seasons.

Bailey had long been viewed as a future international prospect and had been given extra state responsibility back in 2006-07, when Marsh tore his calf late in the season and Bailey guided the Tigers to two important wins before giving the reins back to Marsh for the historic final triumph. Another consistent summer in 2008-09 brought Bailey 673 Sheffield Shield runs at 37.38, following on from his 734 runs the previous season. His reliability that season earned him a spot on the Australia A tour of India in late 2008 and he also won an IPL deal with the Chennai Super Kings.

A destructive striker who can change a match within a few overs, Bailey arrived as a state one-day player at 19. By 2005-06, he proved he had added patience to his game when he was given an extended stint in the first-class team due to another Marsh injury, scoring 778 Pura Cup runs and earning a second invitation to the Academy. Talk of the state leadership and possible national team representation began that summer, when his highest score was 155 against South Australia, an innings that formed part of a state-record fourth-wicket partnership of 292 with Travis Birt. Another highlight came shortly before the 2006-07 season, when he bludgeoned 136 from 65 balls for the Academy against a Zimbabwe Board XI. Bailey is a former national under-19 player and the great-great-grandson of George Herbert Bailey, who was part of the 1878 touring squad to England.