Surrey youngster Will Jacks the latest star to emerge from deep talent pool

Coming through: Will Jacks is the next rising star at Surrey
Getty Images for Surrey CCC
Will Macpherson11 April 2019

If you are a youngster playing at Surrey — and there are certainly a few — you need not look far for inspiration.

The path forward has been set. There’s Sam Curran pulling up trees in the IPL with Kings XI Punjab and on the Test stage. And there’s Ollie Pope who, 12 months ago, went from being a 20-year-old with seven first-class matches to a Test cricketer in a matter of weeks. Now, he has six first-class centuries, and begins the new season one of the most sought-after wickets. Ryan Patel and Amar Virdi have had their moments too and are first-team regulars.

A year behind coming through in the academy was Will Jacks. After him is Jamie Smith, who scored a century on debut last month.

“When you watch guys come through it really helps to motivate you,” says Jacks. “The year above me there are five. How many times have five guys come through an academy and into a professional team? That’s the club philosophy now, putting time into youth.”

Jacks begins this season in a similar position to Pope last year. He is 20, the talk of the club, and set for his first settled run in the side. He has some fond memories of last season, when he made a maiden One-Day Cup century against Gloucestershire at the Kia Oval, and took a blinding catch at short leg to win the key Championship match against Lancashire on the way to the title.

Jacks rates that catch over the moment that recently grabbed headlines: his 25-ball century against Lancashire in a pre-season T10 in Dubai, which included six sixes in an over off former England left-arm spinner Stephen Parry.

“You have to be someone pretty special to get a hundred in a T10,” says Surrey team-mate Jason Roy. “He is one hell of a talent, a star in the making.”

Jacks struck all six pretty solidly, and realised the opportunity after the fourth. “As it was happening I thought ‘it’s just a warm-up game, a T10, no one is going to care’,” he tells Standard Sport. “Then I looked at my phone, had so many messages, it was all over Twitter and I realised it was something quite big.”

It is little surprise that Kevin Pietersen is his first batting hero, but it’s Pope’s 2018 that he wants to emulate now.

His targets are two white-ball hundreds, a maiden Championship ton — he was set to bat No6 in the match against Essex which starts this morning — and to become a regular in all three formats.

“Look at Popey,” says Jacks. “Things can happen really quickly. Playing at a club like Surrey, people look at us… The squad is so strong, every game there will be guys unlucky to miss out.

“I think that’s what pushed us on last year. Hopefully we can do that again.”

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