Gareth Batty

Gareth Batty

Personal information
Full name	Gareth Jon Batty
Born	(1977-10-13) 13 October 1977 Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Nickname	"Boom Boom"
Height
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm off break
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 619)	21 October 2003 v Bangladesh
Last Test	3 June 2005 v Bangladesh
ODI debut (cap 171)	13 December 2002 v Australia
Last ODI	27 March 2009 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1997	Yorkshire
1998–2001	Surrey
2002–2009	Worcestershire
2010–	Surrey (squad no. 13)
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 7 10 228 237 Runs scored 144 30 6,773 2,246 Batting average 20.57 5.00 23.76 15.70 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 2/30 0/5 Top score 38 17 133 83* Balls bowled 1,394 440 40,773 9,209 Wickets 11 5 594 218 Bowling average 66.63 73.20 33.35 32.28 5 wickets in innings 0 0 24 1 10 wickets in match 0 n/a 2 n/a Best bowling 3/55 2/40 7/52 5/35 Catches/stumpings 3/– 4/– 158/– 79/–
Source: CricketArchive, 26 May 2016

Gareth Jon Batty (born 13 October 1977) is an English cricketer, more specifically a spin-bowler. He is the younger brother of former Yorkshire and Somerset off-spinner Jeremy Batty.

Education

Batty was educated at Bingley Grammar School, a Voluntary Aided state school in Bingley, West Yorkshire.

Life and career

The off-spinner has been largely backup to Ashley Giles throughout his career, though he did play four Tests in the English tour of the subcontinent in 2003, as conditions favoured the inclusion of a second spinner in a team. He was picked the tour of the West Indies in 2003/04. Batty was the bowler Brian Lara faced when he scored his world record 400th run in the fourth Test Match in Antigua. He was picked as second spinner for the South African tour the next season.

The selectors continued to show faith in him, picking him for the two Tests against Bangladesh in 2005 when Giles suffered a hip injury – in the first, he did not bat, did not bowl, and but for Bangladeshi resilience in the second innings, he might have gone through the entire series without bowling. He has gone down to the spinning pecking order due to the emergence of Monty Panesar and re-emergence of Graeme Swann.

County career

Batty began his county career with his native Yorkshire, after playing for England Under 19's, making his County Championship debut in 1997. Due to lack of opportunities he transferred to Surrey in 1998 where he played mainly one-day games. He joined Worcestershire in 2002 where he became the main spinner and came to prominence with the national team.

Batty has been sponsored by Slazenger for the past five years and currently uses the SX model, which features a pronounced bow, suiting his aggressive style. His bats weigh 2.8 lbs (1.2 kg).

Batty was selected for the England Lions squad to tour New Zealand in the winter of 2008. In March 2009, Batty was called up to the England ODI and Twenty20 squad to tour the West Indies. He replaced spinning all-rounder Samit Patel, who dropped due to fitness concerns, and Swann who returned home after the Test series to undergo an operation on his elbow.

In July 2009, he announced his intention to leave Worcestershire at the end of the 2009 cricket season to seek fresh opportunities elsewhere. He rejoined Surrey on a three-year contract.

Batty was involved in an unsavoury incident while captaining Surrey in a Championship match against Somerset at Taunton in August 2012. Murali Kartik, a spinner who had previously played for Somerset, ran out Somerset batsman Alex Barrow who was backing-up at the non-striker’s end. Batty declined several invitations by the umpires to withdraw the appeal leading to bad feeling between the teams and around the ground. In August 2013, he was suspended from the T20 finals day after a clash with Somerset batsman Peter Trego. The ECB banned him for two games after he apparently physically confronted Trego and hurled foul language after dismissing him in a quarter-final match.

External links

• Player profile: Gareth Batty from CricketArchive
• Player profile: Gareth Batty from ESPNcricinfo