Dom Bess

Dom Bess' Test debut at Lord's, aged 20, against Pakistan in 2018 was an extraordinary development for an offspinner who had played only 16 first-class matches and was among the first signs that England's new selector, Ed Smith, had an appetite for a left-field pick. He made 57 in his second innings and took three wickets in the following Test at Headingley, but with expectations suddenly higher, his form declined when he returned to Somerset and he found himself playing 2nd XI cricket later in the summer. He later revealed that his topsy-turvy summer had a major impact on his mental health.

In 2019, he found himself struggling for gametime at county level with Jack Leach still first-choice, and went on loan to Yorkshire in pursuit of regular cricket. That winter, he had just returned from an ECB spin camp in India when Leach went down sick in South Africa, giving him the opportunity to fly out as a replacement. He quickly moved ahead of Matt Parkinson in the pecking order on tour, and performed admirably in the holding role in the second Test at Cape Town. At Port Elizabeth, he took his first Test five-for, and ended the tour with credit in the bank.

When England returned home for the 2020 summer after the Covid pandemic had delayed the season, his determination with the bat and liveliness in the field saw him preferred to Leach by England, though Somerset saw it differently and he left the club for Yorkshire at the end of the summer. Bess did well enough in a holding role without ever convincing, and in early 2021, found himself dropped three Tests into England's tour of Asia, with the team's management suggesting his 17 wickets at 22 masked a lack of consistency that would be exposed in India. He returned to the side for the final Test short on confidence, leaking more than four runs an over, and later admitted he had started "hating cricket" amid the pressure of the bubble.

Bess battled back in 2022, equalling his Championship-best haul of 36 wickets while enhancing his allround credentials with four half-centuries, but remained out of England's plans and struggled in 2023, losing his place in the Yorkshire side and going out on loan to Warwickshire and back at Somerset. When England returned to India in early 2024, Bess was playing first-class cricket in Zimbabwe's domestic competition.

Whatever ambitions Bess had for the Championship season of 2016, he could never have imagined that his offspin would suddenly be regarded as a key component in Somerset's Championship challenge - a challenge only beaten off by Middlesex in the final session of the season. Life changed for Bess on one memorable day on a Taunton turner when 21 wickets fell and he found himself acknowledging the cheers of the crowd as he took 6 for 21 on Championship debut, including Warwickshire's former England pair Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott in successive balls.

To underline that it was no fluke, he followed up with 5 for 43 against Nottinghamshire in Somerset's final match of the season to send them briefly top of the table, only to be passed by Middlesex on the final day. In only two Championship matches, Bess returned season's figures of 10 wickets at 10.46. All a far cry from his first-class debut against Pakistan in July when he had failed to take a wicket.

Those good impressions were underlined when, in tandem with Jack Leach, he was again a central part of Somerset's season in 2017, taking 36 wickets at 23.42, with Taunton by now nicknamed Ciderabad because of the responsiveness of its surfaces. Somerset beat Middlesex in the last game to stay up and both Leach and Bess won England Lions recognition. Bess was only 20, tempting Leach to comment: "I was still getting pissed at University at that age."

Bess is a offspinning allrounder from Sidmouth in Devon. He signed a scholarship contract with Somerset, having joined the club's academy when he was 16 and has represented England Under-19s. Hundreds in the 2nd XI showed that he could hold a bat, too. He also spent the 2015-16 winter at Darren Lehmann's Adelaide academy. His explanation as to how he came to bowl offspin was a diverting one. "I was always a little porker when I was younger, so I never took the long run-up," he said. "I always took five or six steps and just trotted in."
ESPNcricinfo staff